The Queen's Awards for Enterprise: 2012

• Join the Mind Tools Club
• Login

Visualization

Imagining – and Achieving – Your Goals

Picture what you want to achieve.

© iStockphoto/DanDriedger

Have you ever wondered what Olympic athletes think about right before they compete?

Imagine this for a moment: They're in front of thousands, or even millions, of people. They're feeling nervous, watching their competition, and considering all the things that might go wrong and how to avoid them.

Sounds reasonable, right? After all, that's probably what we would do in their position.

However, if they did that, their odds of losing the competition would probably be quite high. Well-trained athletes know they should never visualize mistakes, especially right before a competition. Why? Because picturing, or visualizing, mistakes - imagining poor performance - increases the likelihood that the athletes will actually do those things during the event, even when they don't mean to.

Instead, most top athletes are trained to visualize their goals right before a competition. They see themselves winning the game, running the fastest race, or scoring the winning point. They're trained to 'picture' what they WANT to happen, instead of what they DON'T want to happen. When they do this, their chances for success increase dramatically.

This is the power of visualization - and you, too, can use this technique every day to help you achieve your goals and dreams. In this article, we outline what visualization is, and how you can start using it in your life.

What is Visualization?

Visualization is simply a technique that you can use to create a strong mental image of a future event. With good use of visualization, you can practice in advance for the event, so that you can prepare properly for it. And by visualizing success, you can build the self-confidence you need to perform well.

For instance, imagine you have a major job interview next week. You're nervous already, and it's easy to worry about giving poor answers to the interviewer's questions, speaking awkwardly about your past accomplishments, and forgetting your letters of recommendation.

Does this sound familiar? We've all probably experienced negative thinking like this.

However, instead of thinking negatively, you could use visualization to imagine that the interview goes well. You could picture yourself talking confidently, easily describing all of your past achievements, and providing letters of recommendation to the interviewer. That vision feels a lot better, doesn't it?

Visualization offers several benefits:

• Visualizing outcomes that you want can increase your confidence. 'Seeing' yourself succeed helps you believe that it can – and will – happen.
• Visualization helps you 'practice' success. When you imagine every step of an event or activity going well, you get your mind and body ready to take those steps in real life.
• Anyone can benefit from visualization. You don't have to be a life coach or personal development expert to use visualization to achieve your goals.

How to Use Visualization to Achieve Your Goals

The great thing about visualization is that you can use it in so many areas of your life. Do you want a promotion? Do you want to make more friends at the office? Do you want to start your own business?

Visualization can help you in all of these areas. This is why so many highly effective people use the technique to help them achieve their goals and dreams.

Follow these steps to start visualizing your goals.

... for the complete article:

Mind Tools Club members, click here.

Join the Mind Tools Club

The Mind Tools Club gives you many more resources than you get here on the basic Mind Tools site, including these 4 free workbooks.

You'll find training, help and ideas to boost your career.

Find out what you get

Log in with your existing Mind Tools details

You are now logged in…

Lost username or password?

Please enter your username or email address and we'll send you a reminder.

Thank You!

Your log in details have been sent to the email account you registered with. Please check your email to reset your login details.

Create a Mind Tools Login

Your plan has been created.

Thank You!

Please check your Inbox, and click on the link in the email from us. We can then send you the newsletter.