You can think of visualization as being like the director of your own movie. You are writing the movie of your life. What is it going to look like? You get to decide what you’re going to do and accomplish and how long it’s going to take you to accomplish those things. Your job is to visualize and picture exactly what you want.
We all get 24 hours in a day. Your 24 hours are the exact same as that of the people you admire and want to emulate. So, you need to decide how to better emulate their life, choices, and habits. Use visualization to move your life closer to what theirs is like.
That doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Other people seem so much better organized and prepared. Other people seem to have been given so much more— better opportunities, more money, and so on. Other people seem to be in such a better place in life. How can you compete with your own life movie script?
You can’t compete— not with that defeatist thinking. What you can do is decide that you’re going to more closely emulate their movie. You’re going to visualize your way to the kind of success they have and the kind of success you wish you had.
If you hadn’t guessed by this point, I get a lot of my inspiration from other people. It’s really inspiring for me to read rags-to-riches type stories. It’s extremely motivating for me to learn that someone wasn’t better or smarter than me— they simply took different steps in a different order, as well as more steps, and didn’t let their motivation wane. I can do that. I’ve done that. Now I’m the one getting emails from people telling me that I’m the inspiring and motivational story they look up to. I have to tell you— I never thought that would happen.
But it did happen and it does happen. It’s because I changed my own storyline. It’s because I changed the movie of my life. Part of that was through visualization. I saw that my life wasn’t anywhere near where I wanted it to be. That wasn’t acceptable to me. That wasn’t how I wanted my life to go. So, I fixed it.
I created pictures in my mind of where I should and would be. I ran movies in my head where I was happier and more successful. That $200 sticky note that I put on my computer printer which was right next to my monitor where I could see that note out of the corner of my eye constantly, before I was earning more money in my business became imprinted in my brain.
Now, you have to decide what’s going to become imprinted in your brain. What is your legacy? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Heck, where do you see yourself a month from now? You can re-write your story by changing your daily habits, and you can do it quickly.
The things you do every day add up to the things you do every year. The things you do every year add up to the things that tell the tale of your life. If you can change the things you do every day, you can change your life story. You’re writing the book, you’re making the movie. Change your habits; change your life.
Now’s the time to change your movie. You have to re-write your story. The exciting thing is that it can be whatever you want it to be. You just have to put it in your mind and see it there. You need to see the pictures you want to see in your mind. Get your own sticky notes and write your goals on them and have them imprinted in your mind. Do whatever you need to do to change your story.
Visualization Is Not Daydreaming
I want to make it very clear that when I talk about visualization, I’m not talking about daydreaming. Daydreaming can tell you a lot about yourself. It can also be a massive waste of time and a byproduct of procrastination.
Visualization is different because it’s deliberate. You are visualizing certain habits and goal achievements for a particular reason. Daydreaming is not deliberate. Mostly, there isn’t an end-goal there for the daydreamer—it’s just something that happens.
I’m not saying it’s not good to daydream sometimes… quite the opposite. Daydreaming can be a great way to foster your own creativity and allow your subconscious to work. You never know where your mind will go when you don’t censor it at all. What I am saying is that you need to have deliberate times when you use active, controlled visualization to help you adopt better habits and achieve your goals. You need to build this into your daily habits in a very deliberate way.
I wanted to make that clear, because many people get the two confused. Visualization is more structured in that it has a purpose and you’re doing it in a specific way. Daydreaming is wide-open. They both serve their function, but we’re talking about purposeful visualization.
Visualization Is Extremely Motivating
One of the most difficult parts of sticking with habit change and reaching your goals is staying motivated. It’s new and shiny at first but then it becomes hard and ho-hum to push through.
If you’ve tried to lose weight 10 times before, you’re sure you’re going to do it this time with the new method and strategy you found! But then, it’s a week later and you realize all the reasons you’ve failed before. You still give it a shot, half-heartedly, but completely fall back into old patterns just a few days later.
Life throws you curveballs. The day-to-day isn’t always so easy. Some days run much more smoothly than others. What seems easy on day 1 seems stupid and impossible on day 14. That’s life… and that’s why habit change and goal setting are so difficult. That’s why there are so many books and theories on this topic… that’s also why I think the one you’re reading right now is so different from all the rest, if I may be so biased.
You’re naturally more motivated in the beginning, especially when you have shiny new strategies to try or see a fresh, exciting success story. Not only do things get harder depending on the day, but your own mind plays tricks on you! While you might be in a great mindset the first day, those doubts slowly start to trickle in. That seed of hope you planted in the beginning quickly gets trampled by a poor mindset and self-doubt before it can ever grow into something strong.
This happens again and again. You try to start a new business and you’re really excited. Then, the million and one reasons why it won’t work sway your motivation, so you’re back to square one. You want to lose weight and you’re really excited. But then you see the temptations and remember all the failures and you’re back to square one. Where does it ever end?
There are two things going on here. First, you have to be ready for the fact that it’s easier on some days than on others. On some days, you’ll be presented with apple pie and sundaes in a social atmosphere where literally everyone else is pigging out even though you’re on a diet.
Are you going to stay as strong as you would on the days where you are only presented with lean fish and vegetables? You have to be prepared for different variables on different days. True habit-change happens when you’re ready for all variables— when you’re ready for whatever life throws at you on any given day.
The other thing going on here is that your own mind is a variable. On some days, you’ll feel strong, confident, and motivated. On other days, you’ll feel weak and stupid for even trying. You have to be ready for that, as well.
This is where visualization comes in. Visualization primes you for just about anything. It keeps the excitement fresh, which is very important. You were really pumped up on the first day to change your habits and achieve your goals… but you sort of forget along the way. Visualize yourself staying strong and reaching the finish line, every day, and that excitement will stay strong enough to keep you going for the long haul.
Visualization also keeps you strong for when those outside variables come into play. If you visualize positive business habits and achieving the dollar figure you have on your sticky note, every day, it will be a lot easier to stay strong and stick to the plan, even when you see a new, shiny, “business opportunity” land in your email inbox that will only serve to take you off course.
Finally, visualization keeps you strong mentally. Those doubts can pile up before you know it. You might have a nasty internal voice telling you that you should give up, that you’ll never succeed.
Visualizing your success doesn’t give those doubts any room in your brain. You’ll fill your brain with happy, positive images of sticking with better habits and achieving your goals. You’ll stay strong and positive so you can reach your goals.
Visualization is extremely motivating and positive. It keeps you stronger, even when many would have given up— even when you would have given up, in the past. It also keeps your new, positive habits and goals firmly at the top of your mind where they belong. It takes around a month to develop a new habit. It can be hard to break old habits and form new ones. But it’s so much easier when you prime your brain with visualization— it almost feels like cheating because it makes it that much easier!
Motivation is something many people struggle with when it comes to long-term goal setting and habit change. I strongly urge you to use visualization as your shortcut so you can zoom your way through to success, no matter how many times you’ve tried and failed in the past and no matter what life throws your way. The bottom line is that visualization keeps your motivation extremely strong and it’s a tool you should keep close to you.
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