Creating Success through Visualization

Dare to dream! Dare to create intentional dreams!

Walt Disney said, "If you can dream it, you can do it." I didn't realize how true this was until I learned about visualization. At first, I was skeptical. I considered myself a successful person and didn't think I needed visualization to become more successful. However, I decided to be open-minded and give it a test.

The subject of my test was my desire to sell my house and build my dream home. My house had been for sale for several months, and I had received no offers. I had bought a lot on a beautiful pond, and I needed to sell my house in order to start building. I visualized an immediate sale of my home to cash buyers who wanted to close and move in immediately. (If I was going to dream, I was going to dream big!) The following week, I received a cash offer! The buyers wanted to close in nine days and to move in on the day of closing.

My first thought was that visualization was almost spooky! My second thought was that this episode was probably a fluke and that it would have happened even without the visualization. As a result, I decided to test visualization more by selecting six additional things I would like to create in my life. My dream creations included material possessions, career advancement, more-fulfilling relationships, and increased spirituality. I described each of these in vivid detail before starting the visualization exercises. The visualization then helped to guide my actions. Within three months, all six of these dreams came true!

Ever since this time, I have been a strong believer in the power of visualization and have used it as the first step in creating all the major "wins" in my life. I understand fully what Henry David Thoreau meant when he said, "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours."

In You'll See It When You Believe It, Dr. Wayne Dyer says, "Your determination to succeed is nothing more than your thought to do so. The idea of success is really the thought of success." In this book, he shared that his thoughts had always created his world. He described his visualization process at age thirteen. He spent many nights watching The Tonight Show on a tiny black-and-white television set. He pictured himself on The Tonight Show and practiced talking with the host, Steve Allen. He would actually work on routines, as he imagined himself being a guest on the show. In his mind's picture, he was an adult appearing on the show and discussing the things he knew to be true. Even then, he visualized himself telling The Tonight Show audience that we are able to choose our own destinies.

Dr. Dyer wrote Your Erroneous Zones while he was teaching at a university. He struggled for almost a year with the thought that he needed to go out on his own and leave the security of a bimonthly paycheck. "I had wonderful pictures in my mind's eye," he said. "I saw myself talking to everyone in America about the ideas I had just finished writing about in Your Erroneous Zones. I could see in my mind that the book was going to be very successful." He left his university position and began working his plan to follow his dreams. As negative people told him that he could not accomplish his vision, he became even more committed.

A year later, his book was on the New York Times bestseller list. His vision had begun to manifest! Within a few months, the book was at the top of the list, where it stayed for almost two years. Then one day, he received the "magic phone call," which was to lead to the fulfillment of the image that he had since he was thirteen years old. He appeared on The Tonight Show three times within an eleven-day period.

Visualization is not new. It has been used since the beginning of time. Aristotle said that the soul cannot think without pictures. "The reasoning mind thinks in the form of images … As the mind determines the objects it should pursue or avoid in terms of these images, even in the absence of sensation, it is stimulated to action when occupied with them."

Many visionaries specialize in teaching the visualization process to others. Depending on the visualization specialist, the steps in the process can vary. Although you will want to use the process that works best for you, it's important to remember that all of the various processes focus on creating mental pictures in the present tense.

The following process has created success for me in business and in life.

Determine what you want to create in your life.
What do you really want in life? What does success mean to you? What will you commit to achieving? When determining this, be sure to think of all aspects of your life. Include relationships, health, career, material wants and needs, spiritual growth, and anything else that is important to you. Make a written list of these things. Be sure to write the result of what you wish to create, not how you plan to get it.

Next, review your list to make sure that it is in the present tense. When you visualize, your subconscious mind will be working in the present tense. Also, make sure that you have written what you want, not what you don't want. When you visualize, you'll need to concentrate on what you want. For example, if you are overweight, don't write that you want to lose weight. Your subconscious mind will focus on the word weight, rather than the fact that you want a thinner, healthier, more-attractive body. In this case, you might want to write, "I am physically healthy and attractive."

Eliminate distractions.
Distractions come in two varieties: Internal and External. You can have control over both. First, you will want to eliminate the external distractions. Go to a quiet place where you will not be interrupted.

The internal distractions are more difficult for most of us to eliminate, but it can be done. We all have so many things on our minds that our thoughts will tend to wander if we do not discipline our minds to stay focused on the task at hand. Close your eyes and give yourself some time to unwind. If your mind wanders onto a trivial matter (or even something that is extremely important), open your eyes and write it down. Then close your eyes again, stay seated, and unwind.

Relax your body and your mind.
Most of us do not realize how much stress and tension is in our body, until we start to relax. If you have a favorite relaxation technique, use it now to relax your body before you start visualizing. If you do not have a favorite technique, you may want to try the one that works best for me. I simply tense and relax each muscle group, starting with my feet and working my way up to my forehead.

Once you are relaxed, you might start by visualizing a quiet green forest or a blue sky with one fluffy white cloud floating above you. You can relax your mind as you direct your attention to the green trees or the fluffy white cloud. As you do this, let all of the stress and tension leave your mind. This has worked very well for me.

Create a mental movie.
You are now ready to start creating your future through visualization and to put yourself on the path to realizing your vision.

At this point, direct your thoughts to the image of that which you want to create in your life. Picture yourself as if you have this in your life. The important word here is picture. Visualization works best in pictures, not paragraphs. In Control Theory, William Glasser said, "Most people do not know that they are motivated by the pictures in their heads and have no idea of how powerful and specific they are… The power of pictures is total … and when we change the important pictures, we change our lives."

Dr. Dennis Deaton advises visualizing these pictures as sensory-rich, emotion-laden images. He says, "The more sensory-rich and emotion-laden the images, the more powerful they are to the subconscious, the more quickly they are absorbed, and the more readily they are acted upon." In your mental movie, envision yourself using all five of your senses.

Reinforce your vision through consistent mental rehearsal.
Your first visualization session might take some time; however, it is time well invested. Future visualization sessions might take anywhere from one to 30 minutes, depending on the circumstances. I recommend that you plan to visualize your goals and dreams at least twice each day and that you keep the end result in your thoughts throughout the day. Through your thoughts, you are creating your life. Your mind will then drive your actions in the direction of your dominant thoughts.

As human beings, not only can we dream, but also we can make our dreams come true. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

May you always believe in the beauty of your dreams!

Self-confidence can be learned...

Believe in yourself! I look at this as the foundation for success, not only in a career but also in life.

Believe in yourself! It sounds simple, doesn't it? However, the number of people having low self-confidence is shocking. I’ve discovered that even many of those, who appear to have high self-esteem, have times when they don't feel as confident as they do at other times. This is usually when they are doing something new where they need to stretch themselves outside of their comfort zone.

Someone I admire once sent me a note saying, “Thank you for teaching me that self-confidence can be learned.” Following are the suggestions I had shared with this person:

Think of yourself as the important person you are. You are a special human being. You are unique. You have special skills, talents, and abilities that are yours alone. And you can use your special skills, talents, and abilities to increase your own success and also to help others to become more successful. Dr. Dennis Deaton, one of my favorite authors and speakers, teaches that "you alter your destiny by altering your thoughts." How true this has been in my life! The more I think of myself as successful, the more successful I become. Never underestimate the power of thought.

Practice daily personal affirmations. In order to believe in yourself, you need to train your subconscious mind. Many of us have conditioned our subconscious mind in the past to believe that we are less than we are. The subconscious mind does not think for itself; therefore, it believes whatever is fed into it. If it hears negative comments, it believes them. If it hears positive comments, it believes them. Unfortunately, most of us hear, and pay attention to, many more negative comments than positive ones. That's why positive affirmations are so necessary. All of us need to train and re-train our subconscious mind by assuring it is fed positive thoughts.

Emulate self-confident people. Who is it you admire most? Does this person have some characteristics that you would like to emulate? If you decide to emulate some of this person's characteristics, you can be selective in the ones you choose. We can learn much just by observing people that appear to be self-confident. Another way to learn to emulate characteristics of successful, self-confident people is ask their advice. Most people love to hear that others admire them, and they enjoy sharing their wisdom, experience, and advice.

Reward yourself for each success. In a world where we have been raised to be modest and to not "blow our own horns," it is often difficult to accept praise or even to admit that we are successful. However, recognition contributes to self-confidence, and we can't depend on others to give us this recognition. Genuine success comes from within. It is self-generated. It is the realization that we are accomplishing our goals and our mission in life. Each of us measures our own success on our own yardstick. As we do this, we need to generate our own recognition. In giving recognition to ourselves for our accomplishments, we expand our enthusiasm and energy to accomplish more. As we are recognized, our self-confidence grows. Self-confidence builds more self-confidence, which builds more success. As we continue to reward ourselves for our successes, the cycle continues.

Surround yourself with positive people. Olympic champion, Wilma Rudolph, was the twentieth of the 22 children in her family. Weak and frail as a child, she contracted pneumonia, scarlet fever, and polio. As a result, her doctors had little hope that she would ever be able to walk. With the encouragement of her mother, Wilma worked at taking one step and then another until, at age eleven, she was able to make it from one side of her yard to the other. When she started high school, she made the basketball team and later became one of the starting players. With much hard work, determination, and more encouragement from her mother, she continued to improve her athletic abilities. At the Rome Olympic Games in 1960, she won three gold medals, set world records in both the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash, and ran the anchor leg in the four by one hundred-meter relay. She was called the fastest woman on earth. When asked how she had overcome her disability, she responded, "The doctors said I would never walk. My mother said I would. I believed my mother."

Not all of us have had the opportunity to live most of our life with positive people, with people who encourage us, with people who do not criticize us. However, as adults, we can choose the people with whom we spend the majority of our time. When you include more positive people in your circle of friends, you yourself will become more positive. As you become more positive, you will attract more positive people. By attracting more positive people into your life, your self-confidence will grow.

Look and feel your best. Most people feel better about themselves when they look their best. Following are some tips from successful people on looking and feeling your best:

• Wear clothes that are appropriate for the occasion. These clothes do not have to be expensive, but they should fit well and be clean and pressed.


• Practice good grooming habits at all times.


• Stand and sit straight.


• Get enough sleep to look and feel good.


• Maintain good health. See your doctor when you are ill, and have regular physical checkups.


• Stay physically fit. Aerobic exercises will help, especially walking and swimming.


• Wear a smile. You will soon notice that this will also attract more positive people into your life.

The better you look, the better you'll feel about yourself. Most people who practice these simple tips for two weeks begin to notice a difference. When people notice a difference, they make a habit of practicing these tips. As the habits are formed, self-confidence increases.

Fake it until you make it. Normally, I wouldn’t advise anyone to fake anything. Personal integrity is important to me, and I believe that honesty is critical to one's success. However, what I am recommending here is that you act the part of an extremely self-confident person. By acting self-confident, most people begin to realize that they can be self-confident. If people think of themselves as successful, they are successful. If they believe in themselves, others will also believe in them. The reverse is also true. By demonstrating self-confidence, even when they don't think they have it, they will become more self-confident.

Affirm those around you. There are not many people in the world who can't benefit from more self-confidence. I have learned that even the most arrogant and seemingly self-assured people often lack the inner confidence needed to really feel good about themselves. Even these people need compliments. In business, the most confident executives and managers I know are the ones who give credit to the people who do the work. In life, the most confident people are the ones who demonstrate confidence in others.

Self-confidence can be learned. Always remember that you are a special human being! Believe in yourself, and others will believe in you, also.

Surviving and Thriving during Change

Marilyn Ferguson, an American futurist once said that change was like "Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There's nothing to hold on to."

During our lifetime, each of us goes through multiple changes. In some cases, we initiate the changes ourselves. In others, the changes are initiated by others, and we often feel that we have no control over the things that are happening to us as a result of these changes.

When I was going through one of the biggest changes in my life, I decided that I was not only going to survive the effects of this change, but I was going to thrive and become even stronger because of it. It was then that I wrote the following eight action steps to survive and thrive during any change in one's life:

1. Tune up your self-confidence. Think of yourself as the important person you are. Each of us is a miracle, and each of us has a mission in life and the skills, talents, and abilities to fulfill this mission. Take time to make a list of everything you like about yourself, and affirm yourself.


2. Take responsibility for stress reduction. Much stress accompanies any change, even change that we perceive as "good" change. Three ways to reduce stress are relaxation exercises, physical exercise, and laughter. Bob Hope said, "I've seen what a good laugh can do. It can transform tears into hope."


3. Focus on priorities. Ask yourself the following two questions: What are my priorities in life? Will this change affect me 20 years from now? This helps to put the change into perspective, so that we can deal with it better.


4. Use your emotional energy wisely. If we spend time blaming, complaining, criticizing, or condemning those who are responsible for the change, we are generating negative energy. This negative energy only drags us down, both emotionally and physically. Instead, if we concentrate on generating positive energy, we are able to deal with the change more effectively.


5. Look for the positive. Even though it may seem at first that the change has only a negative impact, we can find something positive if we look hard enough. (For more information on this, see my e-book, Success without Struggle™: How to Control Your Destiny through Your Attitude.)


6. Maximize your productivity. During major change, people tend to spend time worrying about the future. However, worry breaks down productivity. When we're not productive, we again tend to generate negative energy, and this becomes a downward spiral. Since worry does not solve any problems, I encourage people to spend their time in looking at options and alternatives, rather than in worrying.


7. Create your own future. You have the power to create your future. In order to do that, you need to focus on your goals, priorities, and alternative action plans for achieving your goals.


8. Take time to enjoy your life. We are on this earth to have joy. When I look at the word, "recreation," I see within it the word, "recreate." By taking time to do the things that give us joy, we are recreating ourselves, reinventing ourselves, refreshing ourselves, and renewing ourselves.

The French philosopher, Henri Bergson, said, "To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly."

May you go on creating yourself endlessly!