T H R E E Visualization There is no

T H R E E Visualization
There is no thought in my mind hut it quickly tends to convert itself into a power and organizes a huge instrumentality of means. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
hat is it that makes a person a winner? What distinguishes those who
succeed from those who fail? "It's all in the mind," says Arnold Schwarzenegger. A multimillionaire, successful real estate tycoon, movie star, body-builder, five-time winner of the Mr. Universe title, Arnold has it made. But it wasn't always so. Arnold can remember back when he had nothing except a belief that his mind was the key to getting where he wanted to go. "When I was very young, I visualized myself being and having what it was I wanted. Mentally I never had any doubts about it. The mind is really so incredible. Before I won my first Mr. Universe, I walked around the tournament like I owned it. The title was already mine. I had won it so many W
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times in my mind that there was no doubt I would win it. Then when I moved on to the movies, the same thing. I visu- alized myself being a successful actor and earning big money. I could feel and taste success. I just knew it would all happen." Chris Poellein was a member of the world-renowned West German freestyle ski team that won the European Cup six times between 1976 and 1982. "Part of our training program involved working with a psy- chologist to increase the power of our minds. After training on the slopes we were placed in a state of meditation and en- couraged to totally repeat the slope runs in our minds, visual- izing each bump and movement of the routine. We worked as hard training mentally as we did physically. Excellence in athletics—or indeed any endeavor—depends primarily on having a clear mental picture of that activity." Chris should know; she not only has her six medals, but she now has her own successful consulting firm working with business and sports groups to show them how they, too, can benefit from the same techniques. Bryan Edwards, a man of infectious good humor and high spirits, sells life insurance. I met him on one of my tours and he has become a good friend. Each evening, before he goes to bed, he spends ten minutes running over in his mind his next day's calls. He pictures himself making his presentation to each client. He sees them being receptive and gladly taking out a policy with him. He imagines a very productive day with lots of sales. He does this for ten minutes before he goes to bed and ten minutes upon rising in the morning, a total of twenty minutes each day. Bryan Edwards sells more insur- ance in one week than most people sell in six months, and is consistently in the top one percent of his profession every year. Three totally different people with totally different goals
Visualization 15
and objectives in life, yet all are using the same technique to create and influence their reality—the technique of visual- ization. Visualization is using your imagination to see yourself in a situation that hasn't yet happened, picturing yourself having or doing the thing you want, and successfully achieving the results you desire. For example, let us say you want to be more confident. Us- ing visualization you picture yourself as confident. You see yourself doing things, talking to people, all with great confi- dence. You picture yourself in situations that normally give you difficulty and you see yourself in these situations at ease, confident, and performing well. You might picture your friends and associates complimenting you, congratulating you on your new-found confidence. You feel the pride and satisfaction of both being a confident person and of enjoying the things that happen to you as a result of your confidence. You visualize everything that would or could happen to you and live as if it really is happening to you.
HERE'S HOW TO GO ABOUT A SUCCESSFUL VISUALIZATION 1. Decide what you want to do: pass an exam, gain a promotion, meet someone new, make lots of money, be more confident, win the squash game. 2. Relax. Spend several minutes unwinding so that you are comfortable in body and mind. 3. Spend five to ten minutes visualizing the reality you want.
Linger on thoughts of doing and having the thing you want, not as some future reality that might happen or could
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happen. Live in your mind as if it's happening to you right now. Create little inner film clips or videos. See yourself do- ing the thing you want. On one level, you know it's not yet happening to you; it's not yet real. It's still just a visualization, a mental picture. But the mental pictures we indulge in, the ones we regularly think about, become a blueprint for our goals, a mold into which we pour our energy. These pictures are real forces that will work for us. Build whatever characteristics are necessary in your visu- alization. If talent, courage, determination or persistence are vital parts of the picture, include them. Sometimes you will see clear, sharp images, as if you are watching yourself fea- tured in a movie, accomplishing your goal. Other times, you just sort of "think about" your goals in a general way; this is all fine. You can alternate between precise and free-flowing visu- alization, doing a few minutes of each, or concentrate on whatever technique feels most comfortable. Precise Visualization: Generate the exact pictures and scenes you want in your mind. Follow the preset script you have created and run it through your mind a number of times. Free-Flowing Visualization: Allow images and thoughts to come and go without choosing them directly, as long as they show a positive outcome of your goal. Practice both methods and remember the key here is practice. Most people find that they have difficulty in the be- ginning stages of visualization. Their minds won't cooperate and picture the desired scenes. Don't worry if this happens the picture doesn't have to be complete and perfect. If you commit yourself to a program of regular visualization, you will be surprised at how your mind will gradually begin to think the thoughts and create the scenes you choose for it. I should mention at this point that visualizing something
Visualization 17
once or twice is of little effect. Results come when the image is imprinted again and again and again for a period of weeks or months until your goal has been achieved. Don't try to measure success after only one or two attempts. If doubts or contradictory thoughts arise, and occasionally they will, just ignore them. Don't try to resist them or fight them, simply let those thoughts come and go in your con- sciousness without much notice. Just keep repeating your vi- sualization and everything will quite naturally look after itself.
TWO CONDITIONS FOR A SUCCESSFUL VISUALIZATION 1. Always visualize your goal as if it's actually happen- ing to you right now. Make it real in your mind; make it detailed. Enter the role and become it in your mind. 2. Visualize your goal at least once a day, each and every day. There is power in repetition.
Any thought put into your mind, and nourished regularly, will produce results in your life. Let me share with you a now famous and well-docu- mented experiment conducted by psychologist Alan Richard- son. A group of student basketball players was divided into three groups, tested for their ability to score baskets, and each group's results were recorded. The first group was then di- rected to come into the gym every day for a month to practice shooting, the second group was instructed to engage in no practice at all, and the third group was instructed to engage in a very different sort of practice. They didn't step foot in the gym, but instead stayed in their dorms mentally imagining themselves there practicing. For half an hour each day they
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"saw" themselves shooting and scoring and improving dramat- ically. They continued this inner "practice" every day. After a month, the three groups were tested again. The first group (those who practiced shooting every day) showed a 24 percent improvement in their scores. The sec- ond group (those who did no practice) showed no improve- ment. And the third group—who, remember, had practiced only in their minds—improved equally as much as the group that had practiced for real! Such creative visualization is powerful, but it's far from magic. It involves working with natural laws and energies and being creative in directing your own innate power. Properly directed, your imagination is one of the most dy- namic faculties that you possess. Begin using this technique right away. You don't need to concern yourself with the specifics of how things will unfold. Trust the process. Supply follows demand, and you will be led to do the right thing at the right time. You can be sure that the ways and means will make themselves known to you, for nature always creates the opportunities needed to fulfill the demands put upon her. It's natural to want all the answers before we're willing to risk any legwork. We'd all love to see the steps and know all the details of everything that will happen to us. But you rarely get to see those details and steps at the beginning, and very often things unfold in the most unexpected ways. Actress Carol Burnett was born in Los Angeles and raised by her grandmother. They scraped by on welfare and were so poor that her grandmother collected toilet paper from public washrooms. There certainly was not enough money to send the talented youngster to UCLA, which was Carol's dream. She, however, knew that one day she was going to attend the university. "I never thought about the possibility of not going. I would imagine myself taking the classes, being on the cam-
Visualization 19
pus, learning everything I wanted to learn. Every day I would think about it. Even though there didn't seem to be any way I could go, I knew I would." So how did she get the money? "One day in my final year of high school I went to the mail- box to ch