How to Use Visualization to Get Amazing Results!

My first experience with visualization was in high school as a midfielder in the boys football team. My coach requested me to switch from a holding midfielder to an attacking midfielder, which had more difficulty and higher points during gameplay because I had to adjust. As you probably know, an attacking Midfielder needed to be available at each point to receive the ball in order to create room for the strikers. My coach was extremely frustrated with me for weeks because no matter how hard I tried to stay in line with his strategy, I’d faulter at the attacking third of the pitch. Every day after  practice, I’d go home exasperated with myself.

Then the summer preceding my junior year, the FIFA world cup aired.
I glued myself in front of the television to watch the matches as they unfolded. For days, I watched attacking midfielders execute a perfect layout dozens of times. Every night, I’d go to bed seeing those passes and moves in my head. Following the third day of the World Cup, our team had an early morning practice. After warming up on the pitch we started a training match and as I headed to the attacking third of the pitch, without even thinking, I nailed a great move to layout a defense splitting pass, surprising everyone, including myself!

Visualization used to be reserved for elite Olympic athletes. Not anymore.

Visualization Is the Key to Results

Did you know that science has shown that just by visualizing yourself working out in the gym, your muscles grow in strength? Or when you envision a happy memory that neurotransmitters are released, and you will feel happier? Or by imagining being relaxed and peaceful, a person can shift anxiety to a more peaceful state?

Visualization involves creating images and experiences in your mind through colorful detail by using your imagination. It can require practice to master this skill, but it is worth the effort because our minds affect our bodies and the quality of our experience dramatically. Mental imagery galvanizes the brain’s focus and organization more effectively.

What does this mean for you?

Whenever you’re struggling to overcome a bad habit or to accomplish an important goal, visualization, and mental rehearsing of a positive result can accelerate the process and raise the likelihood of success. With focused attention, your endeavor or desired outcome can be more easily attained.

To enhance your results even more, here’s another key component. Studies have shown that focused intention without emotion or feeling creates very little change. High emotions, such as gratitude, signal the brain that the event has already occurred and compel the vision to your current situation. It’s vital to combine envisioning your desire’s completion with the accompanying emotions that you would experience once you have achieved your goal or dream.

Related reading: “Rewire Your Brain for Success by Practicing this Simple 5-Minute Habit According to Neuroscience”

So now that you know that mental imagery can support you in achieving your goals quicker, how do you go about implementing this practice in your life?

The Essential Keys and Steps to Visualize

• Sit in a relaxed and comfortable position.

• Call to mind the steps you’ll take to achieve your goal in vivid detail.

• See yourself experience the result. (Picture yourself receiving the award for your graphic design or see yourself cross that finish line of your first marathon or see yourself happily relaxing on the porch of your new home overlooking the mountains. Whatever you desire, see it happen!

• Imagine how you’ll feel once you’ve accomplished your goal or dream.

• Absorb the experience as if it were real until you feel heightened emotions. Imagine the feeling of relief, the new sense of freedom, the joy or pleasure of the accomplishment.
• Hold and revel in the experience for as long as you can hold it.

• Regularly recall your goal to mind.

You don’t have to reserve a long time to do a visualization. You can take a quick 30-second break at work to submerge in mental rehearsal or while relaxing at home. Don’t postpone waiting for the perfect time and place. Some of my most powerful experiences visualizing have been little snippets of less than 5 seconds.

Related reading: 3 Easy Visualization Techniques

Another helpful tool that can be used in conjunction with the above step-by-step process and visualization techniques is Mind Movies. Mind Movies is a digital vision board that allows you to create a movie of your ideal life. If you’d like to accelerate change, using Mind Movies is a fabulous way to create a video of the sights and sounds of your future goal. This method reinforces your desire and imaging, The software video program accelerates your ability to dive into the feeling of living your future, just like when I watched the Olympic divers repeatedly. Watching a targeted movie of the fulfillment of your personal desires, goals, and dreams with images and affirmations powerfully imprints your mind.

What you desire IS possible!

Consistency and focused attention fueled with heightened emotions are keys to empowering you to fulfill your dreams, small or great. Now, see what you can create.

Godfred Ofosu-Appiah