The Power of VisuaLISTation
A "Strucke by Enlightning" Post
Want to succeed? Visualize. Olympic athletes do it. They picture scoring a point or crossing a finish line in their minds before they actually do it. It works for them, and it can work for you.
To begin, the first step to achieving anything is by knowing what you want to achieve. There are so many people in the world that have no idea what they want to do. They coast through life, taking whatever life throws at them and never quite going after what they really want. Then, they wonder why they never achieved anything. So, if you already know what you want, you are way ahead of the rest of the world.
The first step is to picture exactly what you want in your mind. You can create a vision board, or create a written list that you will focus on every day.
It’s easy to create a vision board of what you what to achieve. You basically find some old magazines and cut out photos, pictures and cool quotes about things that you love. First, you organize them the way you want them on the board. Then, paste them to a piece of oak tag paper, poster board or any type of sturdy paper. Hang up your vision board or place it somewhere where you can see it every day. Then, keep focusing on your goals and desires until they manifest, applying consistent action through the process.
If you are not a visual sort of person, you may be successful creating lists. It is very similar to a business plan for a company. You set long-term goals, short-term goals, and your plan of action.
For example, say your goal is to get your stories published in a particular magazine. Your long-term goal would of course be to be published in the magazine. Your short-term goals may read something like this:
Take a course or read a book on how to write short fiction.
Read the magazine’s Writer’s Guidelines and follow their instructions.
Read a few issues to see what kind of stories they publish.
Schedule an hour every day to write stories for the magazine.
Submit one story a week to them.
Revise any rejected stories and resubmit to other markets.
With a list like the one above, eventually, with any talent and ability, you will get published. If not in that particular magazine, it may be in another market after you revised your story.
Writing lists and creating vision boards can be powerful tools to obtain your goals. Both of these tools have worked for me. I once hung a beautiful picture in my home of a place that I thought was beautiful. I looked at it every day. One day, while visiting Italy, I found myself looking at a scene almost identical to my picture.
Another time, I attended a natural childbirth course, where we were to focus on a peaceful scene in our minds for our meditation. I shut my eyes and kept visualizing a park like scene, with a bridge over a creek. A couple of months later, I went in to the hospital to birth my daughter. In the birthing room was a picture hanging on the wall right across from my bed. It was the exact same scene that I’d visualized in my mind.
An interesting exercise you can do is to go into a quiet room, close your eyes and imagine the things you want. If you want a new home, picture in your mind what the rooms will look like, how the house will be decorated, what kind of street it will be on. Keep focusing on exactly you want consistently and your mind will start formulating a plan to make it happen.
A few years ago, I made a list of all the things I wanted to achieve. Most of them seemed impossible at the time. They were big wishes and goals, not small ones. Within two years, everything I had written on that list came true.
Coincidence? I think not. Visualization works. Creating a list works, too. They are powerful tools to bring you the success that you desire.
