Title:
Imagine if you could get all the things you wanted in life, simply by… imagining them
happening to you?
Well, you probably can’t.
At least not just by doing that.
But imagining, visualizing, or as it’s often called in the world of elite sport and olympic
athletics - mental imagery or mental rehearsal, or... as I’d call it before I realized what
I was doing actually had a name and was proven by science - planning, could be part of the
equation to get what you want, a very important part, one that has been used for decades by
people across different fields.
Let’s talk about that.
This is one of my journals from 2019.
I found it the other day as I was going through some drawers.
In here, I’ve written down some of the things that I want to happen in my life in the upcoming
years, and reading it made me realize how much of that has now happened.
Now, is it all merely a coincidence, or is the art of visualization to be credited?
What even is visualization?
Well, it’s about a lot more than just writing things down…
Body I: What is visualization?
“First I dream of my painting, and then I paint my dream” said Van Gogh.
“Imagination is the most marvelous, miraculous, inconceivably powerful force the world has
ever known” wrote Napoleon Hill.
Put simply, visualization is when we create a vivid mental image of an event we want to
happen, preferably using our five major senses, for the purpose of… well, it depends.
In the case of athletes, they seem to be using mental imagery to, for example, enhance performance
at the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional levels, as one paper said, as well as improving
motivation, coordination and concentration.
It may also be useful in reducing anxiety and fear while boosting self-confidence.
“Every night I visualize myself winning the Olympics…
I picture myself bombing the girl in the final and standing on top of the podium and watching
the flag go up and feeling the gold medal go around my neck and hugging my coach.
I visualize all of that every night” said Kayla Harrison, an Olympic athlete in mixed
martial arts.
“If you can see yourself hitting a dive, the chances of you hitting a dive increase
greatly” said Troy Dumais, a four time olympian diver.
Body II.
Examples
The above are examples of when visualization is used when you already have a foot in the
door.
You’re already playing in the game.
Your spot is guaranteed, it’s just the victory that isn’t.
But how about when we don’t have a foot in the door?
When you’re here (visa med handen), and where we want to be is there (visa med handen)
and we don’t even really know how we’ll get there.
I’d like to share with you how I, personally, use visualization.
It may sound super silly to some, and it does to me too sometimes, but I don’t mind sounding
silly.
Later we will talk about what the purpose of doing all of this is and how it’s actually
worked in my favor.
Let’s take the example of wanting to live in a specific city or neighborhood.
So, what I’d do is I’d look up photos of that place.
I’ll collect them, and I’ll imagine myself waking up in that home, my new home.
I’ll imagine the morning light.
Is it a quiet street or is it busy?
I’ll imagine myself walking through those streets, getting my morning beverage at the
local café.
I’ll search for the closest grocery stores and look up restaurants that I think I’d
enjoy.
I’ll try to bring the feeling of being there, living there and going by my day-to-day there
to life.
And I’ll revisit that image as often as I feel like I want to or need to to keep it
alive.
Let’s take another example, where, let’s say…
I want a job at a specific location.
And so, I visualize what having that job would be like:
I’m opening the doors to the office.
I’m wearing perfectly fitting pants and a white shirt.
I have a coffee cup in my left hand and my laptop in my right hand and I feel absolutely
fabulous.
As I get inside, I greet everyone.
Hey Joe!
How was your weekend?
Oh key Catherine!
How are your daughter's piano lessons going?
I can’t wait to hear about them on my lunch break!
Oh, and as I’m visualising.
I’ll sometimes have music on that puts me in the right mood, you all know I love the
song “raindrops keep falling on my head”.
And then I go to sit at my desk, with a big window and view over the city.
I take a moment to appreciate the fact that I’m sitting there, at my dream job, and
I smile.
I can feel the temperature in the room.
I can smell the coffee aroma as everyone’s grabbing their morning cup.
I can hear the phones going off in the background as clients are making calls.
I hear the clicking sound of the printing machine and the smell of freshly printed paper.
Essentially, I’ll play the scenario in my head like a movie and I’ll make sure to
have fun with it!
Body III.
Purpose
Now, what’s the purpose of all of this, other than the satisfying feeling we get from
planning and daydreaming about the things that we want in life?
Is it merely a form of escapism?
Or entertainment, perhaps?
Personally, I get at least four things out of it, besides it being very entertaining:
I.
It helps with hearing my inner voice.
As I visualise, I pay attention to how it makes me feel.
Does it feel good?
Does it feel right?
And sometimes, the answer is no, I may not feel happy at all by those thoughts.
Other times, it feels great, and the mere thought of it makes me smiley and giggly.
II.
It gets me excited and motivated to pursue whatever it is I want to pursue.
It’s like when you plan to travel somewhere, and I used to always do this as a kid.
I mean, I still do.
I’d look up photos of the travel destination, and I’d imagine what the vacation would
be like and feel like.
I’d imagine packing, going to the airport and flying.
And it got me super excited.
It made the days leading up to the trip more fun, because in the back of my mind, I had
this picture painted of what was waiting for me.
III.
It helps me spot opportunities.
It’s my belief that, once you know what you want, you will be able to spot opportunities
that can get you closer to that thing more vividly.
To put this in perspective, imagine you plan on building something, like, a motorcycle.
You have all the details in mind for what it will look like and feel like, but you have
no idea how you’ll go about it.
However, because you’ve visualized it, you’ll now subconsciously notice more things that
have to do with motorcycles.
Like, if someone mentions a motorcycle in a conversation, you’ll probably be more
inclined to take the opportunity to ask them questions related to building one.
You’re more likely to notice motorcycles in the movies you watch and to draw inspiration.
Essentially, once you plant a seed of something in your mind, you’ll subconsciously look
for ways in which you can water it and to make it grow.
IV.
I use it to plan backwards.
Once I’m able to visualize an outcome, I’m able to design a mental road map to get to
that point.
Let’s go back to the example about wanting to live in a specific neighborhood.
Planning backwards could look something like, okay, I want to buy an apartment in, I don’t
know, Copenhagen.
To do that, I’ll need a mortgage and a downpayment.
To get that, I’d need to keep saving money, but I’d also probably need to get a raise
or to start a side hustle.
To get a raise, I’d need to negotiate, and to do that, I’d need to learn how to, so
I’d need to read this book or talk to this person who’s a pro-negotiator.
That’s not to say that any of those steps are easy, it’s simply just laying them out.
I’m literally just pulling this example out of nowhere, but hopefully, you get the
point of what I’m trying to say here.
Part IV: Put in the work
"God helps those who help themselves".
Religious or not, many of us are familiar with that phrase.
Visualization does not guarantee success.
And this is the final point that I’d like to make.
We can do all the planning, imagining, visualizing that we want.
But as Jim Carrey said in his 1997 interview with Oprah, “Visualization works if you
work hard.
That’s the thing.
You can’t just visualize and go eat a sandwich”.