Once upon a time, I was a youngster and I would hang out with my two cousins who were twins. We mixed it up a bit, sometimes at my house sometimes at their mom’s and sometimes at their dad’s. When we hung out at their dad’s we would almost always gets some sport activity going – any kind really, football, tennis, Pool, and the one I remember most, Basketball.  The reason I remember basketball the most is, the lessons.  They, being older than I would always take it upon themselves to teach me the techniques and tips to whatever we were playing at the time. One time, in particular has stuck with me since.  The reason that this memory of their childhood version of coaching has stuck with me is the fact that it really worked!  It worked more effectively than anything else they taught me. It was a technique for shooting, and getting the ball in the hoop. The technique was very simple, although a little harder to implement once you get it. They said to me, “Your shooting looks great!  Now, all you have to do is play out the shot in your mind before you shoot it and picture the ball going in the basket.”  At first, this seemed to me that it was just a nice way of saying keep practicing. But nonetheless I thought it was worth a shot. (No pun intended.) The first couple shots, it didn’t seem to help, then one of them said, “Are you really picturing it in your head?” I said sure! But he wasn’t satisfied. “You need to actually see the ball going in!”  So, once again I lined up and took a second to really visualize this ball going in, to really “see” it going in the basket. Then I pulled up and took the shot. Sswwiishh!! haha, Luck I thought, but shot after shot after that was sunk.  I couldn’t miss!  Needless to say, I was pumped. The next day I went to gym class with a new confidence.

The reason I told this story is because after reading countless books and taking a bunch of courses on business and life development. There has been a re-accruing theme. We have probably all heard it, I dare say, so much that it has become something of a commodity with which we look at with disdain. This theme is the idea that we can visualize our goals and combined with action and effort we can achieve them. Unfortunately, I too have been overlooking this technique. I have always been meaning to implement it, but – ironically enough, I haven’t. So recently I was taking an incredible course on entrepreneurship and tools that we can use to achieve success in the field of business.  There are a lot of courses and books out there – as great as they are, that are more theory based. Which is one of the great things about this particular course, it was very factual and process driven. So when the topic of visualization came up as a toolkit item, it made me stop and think about this idea again.  That’s when the memory of my basketball lessons with my cousins came flooding back to me.  With that the realization that visualization really does work and with that realization I started thinking about other things in my life that have been this way.  As humans we tend to not actually know what we want deep down, very often. So when we say we want something, some kind of success or change in our lives. Often we don’t really think about the things that are going to have to happen in order for us to achieve that goal. But subconsciously, our minds know, so nothing really happens, in terms of reaching our goal.  But think back in your life to a time when you really wanted something: A vacation, or some kind of gadget or toy, but you didn’t have the time or money.  Well what did you do?  You figured out a way to get it!  You did want you had to, in order to get it, right?!  Well visualizing your goal not only gives your mind a target to reach but it also shows you what it’s actually going to look like once you have achieved it. You might see that the person who has reach that level isn’t the person you are now. Well set that goal anyway, set a goal so big that you can’t achieve it until you grow into the person who can. Then start your visualization of that goal, which will help you plan your attack, because a goal without a plan is just a wish. And remember, keep your eyes on the goal or else your eyes will wonder until you find obstacles.

Visualize your success. Then go do it!

Arnold Schwarzenegger