If you can dream it, you can do it!
Walt Disney
Creative imagination and goal visualisation are where it all begins if you want to increase the probability of reaching your goals. All top performers, regardless of profession, know the importance of picturing themselves succeeding in their minds before they actually do it in reality. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was always stressing the importance of seeing himself victorious long before the actual fight. As a struggling young actor, Jim Carrey used to picture himself being the greatest actor in the world. These top performers, among many others, have mastered the technique of positive visualisation and openly credit it as a success tactic.
We used to refer to this method as careful planning, but planning starts where you have all the needed information for the mathematical precision of the plan. Here, you are allowing your creative mind to express what you want to become, how will feel when you will have your goal achieved, how this endeavour will change the life of your customers.
By having the ability to visualise your goals, you achieve the following important aspects:
- It teaches your brain to recognise what resources it will need to help you succeed in reaching your goals.
- It creates an inner motivation to strive for your goals and dreams
- It promotes positive thinking, which will help you to stay on track to be successful in the long run.
Creative imagination also means to give up your bad habit of complaining, especially about money, expenses and not having enough of it. This makes you slow and prevents you to step further into your endeavours. Complaining also implies you are not doing anything about it. There is no action connected to it, it is just a destroyer of your vision. Whenever you catch yourself complaining, go back to your vision and let it sit into your feelings.
Supporting evidence and practices
The imaging process is well researched and supported by evidence. Personal thoughts about the future can influence their current feelings, motives and behaviours, and thus, social psychologists have a long-standing interest in how people imagine upcoming events (Johnson & Sherman, 1990; Ross & Buehler, 2001). An important fact that has guided decades of research is that imagining the desired future might increase one’s motivation and effort to attain it. People who can visualise their goal seem more successful in achieving it, according to the new research. “The easier a goal is to see, the closer it seems,” said R. Bagchi, assistant professor of marketing in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech.
One of the first books about financial independence and creation of wealth, Think and Grow Rich, is characterised as “one of the most influential business books of all time”, and was written by a self – made millionaire, Napoleon Hill. This book is so important for businessmen that it was sold in more than 100 million copies. Napoleon state in chapter 2:
“All thoughts, which have been emotionalised (given feeling) and mixed with faith, begin immediately to translate themselves into their physical equivalent or counterpart”.
With other words – you need to see what you want to achieve and you need to believe in this vision – this is the power of creative imagination.
Books
Mindset for Success: Visualizing and Achieving Your Goals, Omar Periou – https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Success-Visualizing-Achieving-Goals/dp/1441736174
Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30186948-think-and-grow-rich
Additional resources and links
- https://medium.com/to-the-next-level/the-magic-of-visualization-en-590428b0bc83
- https://www.moneysmartguides.com/power-visualizing-your-goals
- https://medium.com/@ErthaSimone/visualize-your-user-with-your-mind-in-the-moment-in-which-he-performs-the-most-important-action-for-82c12e00ccf0
- http://psychology.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.001.0001/acrefore-9780190236557-e-228