Visualisation to Victory

I am busy reading the book Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE (Phil Knight). A story about a man with a vision, a dream, that would not give up, no matter what. A story of pure tenacity and self-belief.

This brings me back to the importance of visualising what we want. The powerful, scientific method of improving performance.  We need to believe it, to dream it and to see it in order to produce it.

By visualising our goals, we not only build motivation and activate our creative subconscious but we program our brain and trigger the law of attraction. This is a fairly simple concept.  If we can’t picture ourselves succeeding in a certain area in our life, how can we expect it to happen in reality? You become what you believe. That is a very strong concept. The more detailed your visualisations, the better. Simplifying the entire process, when we create a detailed mental image we physiologically create neural patterns in our brain and rerunning this simulation and visualisation stimulates our nervous system as if we were physically in that particular situation.  Seeing really is believing.

Many top athletes, entrepreneurs and even Hollywood stars use the power of visualisation. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Katy Perry, Oprah Winfrey and Lindsey Vonn to name a few. Will Smith is a believer in the law of attraction. In his mind, long before he reached acclaimed stardom, he always saw himself as an A-list superstar.

There are two types of visualisation i.e. outcome and process. According to Dr Frank Niles, outcome visualisation involves you imagining achieving your particular goal. You need to create a detailed mental image combining all your senses i.e. what did it feel like to reach your goal, what did it look like, who was there etc. Process visualisation involves imagining every step and every action necessary to achieve your outcome. The workflow to get you to your end goal.

An added benefit of visualisation is that it can condition you away from self-doubt and slowly increase your self-belief. High self-belief should inevitably lead to action. That is key, having the self-belief to go and achieve what you have set out to without any doubt. Don’t be satisfied with being merely mediocre. Strive to be the very best you can. 

To be given the gift of life is to be given an awesome responsibility. Each of us must go out into the world each day and live our best – Robin Sharma