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Belief is a critical component of success, and one must be able to visualize their goals and aspirations to achieve them.
As Marianne Williamson stated, “Visualize the most amazing life imaginable to you. Close your eyes and see it clearly. Then hold the vision for as long as you can. Now place the vision in God’s hands and consider it done.”
However, many individuals struggle to visualize themselves at their best and often experience emotional distress when attempting to do so. Despite the difficulty, it is essential to imagine oneself in the desired state and believe in its attainment.
To accomplish this, it is recommended to visualize the ideal self in the mirror and associate the image with positive emotions. Additionally, playing a favorite emotional song can enhance the visualization experience and create a more vivid and realistic representation of the best self.
In summary, visualization and belief are critical components of success, and individuals should strive to overcome any emotional obstacles that may hinder their ability to envision their desired outcome.
ACTIVITY | Look in the Mirror
look at yourself in the mirror for 10 seconds.
now, reflect on goals you have for yourself.
how do you want to visualize yourself?
See it and do it. Use that incredible imagination!
Whether it’s a dependable free throw, a wicked curveball, or a tight spiral, repetition is the key to mastering physical techniques. But putting yourself in high-stress situations in your mind and working through them, even when your body is far from the event, can help you perform when your body finally gets there. “Tom isn’t going to train with a linebacker running right at his face,” Walsh says. But through visualization, Brady sees himself avoiding the grasping hands.
For you, maybe it’s simply swinging a golf club pain-free. “If we can take some of those mental repetitions, we’ll be prepared to handle those situations,” he says.
The mental exercise of visualization has been used by stroke victims to activate their neuroplasticity. When you do it mentally, it works in a similar way to when you do it physically. Beth Harmon’s rise to chess prodigy status began with exposure to the game.
After that, she decides she wants to become a master at the game. In order to improve her chess skills, she reads chess books. As soon as she gets her hands on a play, she masters it.
During the night, she visualizes with all of her senses the moves of the upcoming chess match. She keeps practicing, then goes to sleep and continues practicing.
Watch a dancer prepare for her performance offstage. The dance moves are marked with her feet and hands as she imagines them in her head.
After performing, the dancer watches the video replay of the dance with the judges’ comments. As soon as she receives the adjustments, she practices them.
Followed by a visual representation of the same process repeated over and over again. In both a mental and physical sense.
Try visualizing yourself from a first-person perspective: look out upon the world as mental practice.
Test it externally: look at yourself from a third-person perspective.
If you wish to provide your brain with additional stimulation: try both types.
If you can visualize it, you can achieve it. Take a moment and imagine the ideal you. When you have a picture in your head, it is time to find yourself in a magazine. Find photos from magazines or the Internet that reflect how you want to look and feel, the closest thing you can find to the ideal you.
Cut or print them out and post them in places where you will see them frequently, such as your mirrors, bulletin boards, and my favorite place, the refrigerator. These images will act as motivation, spurring you to reach your goals, as well as reminding you to make visualization a habit.
It is important to make visualization a habit, and the best way to make anything a habit (other than repetition) is to make it fun. Tap into the child that would daydream, pretend, play make-believe, and create scary monsters that live under the bed! Remember, when you visualize, you are creating the YOU that you truly desire. Nothing is more fun than that!
On the next page, make a photo collage of this ideal you! Use pictures from when you were at your ideal weight or the pictures from magazines. A runner? Someone who is always outdoors? Someone who feels comfortable at the beach in their swimsuit? The possibilities are endless! As you cut out each image, really imagine how it will feel when you are that person. How will it feel when you can wear a swimsuit without shame? When you make sure to eat healthy foods daily? When you climb Mt. Everest? When you cross the finish line after your first marathon?
Creating a Vision Board
Now that you have the image of your ideal self emblazoned in your mind, let’s put the new you into some situations and environments and see how you look and feel.
Picture yourself as you walk into a party dressed in your ideal outfit. How do you look? How do you feel? Truly experience your happiness, pride, and newfound confidence.
Notice how your friends respond to you. Hear what they say to you. Hear them telling you that you look great.
Relish them relating their pride and astonishment at your transformation.
Now imagine, not only the pride, but also how you feel physically. You are strong, fit, and healthy. You have achieved your weight loss and fitness goals! Congratulate yourself! Celebrate! You did it! By seeing it now, you are on your way to making it real!
Just like you imagined the party, now imagine yourself at your class reunion. You are walking into a room of former classmates, many of whom you have not seen in years. Imagine you are having fun, laughing, enjoying great conversations, and feeling the warmth of old friends and good times. You are not self-conscious about your appearance. On the contrary, you look great, feel great, and people are telling you that you look even better than you did in high school!
Now let’s try something a little trickier. We are going to go to the mall. I know, nothing tricky about going to the mall except for the distractions. Namely the dreaded food court or that standalone cinnamon roll shop that you can smell from literally any store in the entire mall.
You walk in excited to buy new clothes because your old clothes are too big. Feels pretty good already, right?
Now walk past the large plus-size shop you used to frequent. Take a moment to stop, take a deep breath, and pay attention to how you feel. You thank the store for being there and then thank yourself for not needing it anymore.
As you continue through the mall, you come to your favorite store. In the window is THE perfect outfit, and it is in your size! You stand there admiring the outfit and knowing how fantastic you’re going to look in it. At this point, you could walk away and keep imagining, but let’s keep this realistic. You know you are going back to buy it anyway, so just go ahead and get it now. Enjoy that purchase! You have earned it!
I am always worried about people that cannot visualize or are too scared to visualize it. I have had clients through the years actually break down from thinking about visualizing their success because the pain of not achieving can be debilitating.
ACTIVITY | Create your Vision Board
What should I include on my Vision Board?
Put only that which you want to manifest. Put your Visions or goals on the board in their finished state, as if they already exist. Only positive images should populate your board. You can paint, draw and collage using images and words from magazines, cards, or pictures. Although there are no rules, there are a few simple guidelines people may find helpful:
NOTE: DON’T put anything negative on your board. THIS IS VITAL!
NOTE | No need to download if workbook availble.
Why is it important to have something like a Vision Board?
A Vision Board, treasure map, or vision book helps you to clarify exactly what your Vision, Mission, Purpose, and goals are. It helps to affirm what you are about and where you are headed. For example, vision boarding can be used for strategic planning sessions or on a yearly basis to help people chart their course for the coming year.
How does creating a Vision Board help an organization or individual clarify their goals?
You necessarily have to clarify your definition and Visions of success in order to create the Vision Board. The process of creating the Vision Board involves the act of clarification because you must decide exactly what it is you want to represent on your board. When done in a group, it can also help you to examine your core values.
Creating a Motivation Board
Make your Ideal Motivation Collage: Pick out the body styles YOU love and think you can achieve. Cut and paste things that motivate you. They can be quotes, pictures, anything you want to have and let that help you visualize and set your goal. Look in magazines, online, etc. Create on the page below and look back at it as a reminder.
ACTIVITY | Create a Motivation Board
This one does not include you, but includes inspiration! Looking through magazines, posts, ect, pick out the body, the clothes, the life you want to achieve! Use this as motivation.
NOTE: Make sure you list as many issues you can think of. But DIG DEEP! and be as honest and transparent with yourself as you can to achieve the best results.
NOTE | No need to download if workbook availble.
IMPORTANCE AND POSITIVITY
Preparing for Home: From Broken to Positive
Make a list of the top five to seven most important things in your life to worry about. Rank them from most important to least.
These will now be your primary worry buttons. We are not allowed to worry about anything other than these seven things. This is one way to ensure your success.
Remember, if everything is important, nothing is. Stick to the list.
This list will make you prioritize and stay positive.
If you need a reminder, this list will always be here! You can even have a friend give you a pinch to remind you when you go off course. You will be surprised how many pinches you will get.
For years, I have applied the principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to my own life with phenomenal results. CBT explains how we can change our behavior by changing our thoughts. Overeating (behavior) can be changed by challenging our irrational thinking and replacing it with rational thoughts. There are many types of thinking that undermine our success. Let’s explore some of these habits of thought, so we can learn to break the habit and think in new ways.
Many times when people come to our facilities with the goal of losing weight and getting themselves to a better and healthier them, they get scared and become tired because our program is rigorous. That is when the negativity kicks in. People will find anything that they can complain about as a defense mechanism because they don’t think that they can push further. Instead of feeding into their complaints, I always first ask my clients and have our staff ask our clients the same question I have trained my staff to ask every client: Why are you here?
The answer to that question is more important than all the gripes that you can find!
METHODS OF THINKING
We all have good days and bad. But have you ever noticed how starting the day off after a perceived negative incident can turn your thinking negative for even the smallest of things for the rest of the day? Sometimes this happens over and over for the smallest of things. This negative mindset can really hinder your goals and set you on a course for disaster.
Below are examples of methods of thinking. Can you identify which of the following modes of thought are most common to you? Take a look at the positive substitutions and see how you can apply those when needed.
Filtering: Seeing life through a negative lens and ignoring the positive. ● Example: I lost five pounds, but I wanted to lose ten. ● Positive substitution: I am five pounds closer to my goal.
Polarized Thinking: Viewing situations as all good or all bad. ● Example: I could not get my favorite treadmill today; it was a complete waste of time to go to the gym.
● Positive substitution: Because the treadmill was not available, I decided to participate in the yoga class for the first time.
Overgeneralizing: Reaching a general conclusion based on one piece of evidence. ● Example: I gained a pound this week; I may as well quit trying. ● Positive substitution: I am working out and adding muscle; some weeks, I am bound to gain weight.
Catastrophizing: Expecting the worst possible outcomes. ● Example: The holidays are coming up, and I know I am going to gain weight. ● Positive substitution: I will continue to work out and pursue my fitness goals during the holidays.
The key is understanding that you can change your behavior by changing your thoughts. To change your thoughts, you have to control them. To control them, you have to be in charge of what you say to yourself.
BE YOUR OWN CHEERING SECTION
It would be awesome if we all had a cheering section to follow us around all day…. Maybe they could even play our own personalized badass theme music as they trailed behind us. Unfortunately, we do not have that. The majority of the time we only have our inner voice, and it is usually not that motivational. In fact, sometimes we say things to ourselves that we would never say to our worst enemy. It is this negative self-talk that undermines our success more than anything else. To stay on the path toward your goals, not only do you need to be your own cheering section, but you have to be your own best friend, parent, coach, counselor, and overall advocate. You have to know that you are on trial for your health, fitness, and happiness, and your defense attorney decided not to show. It is completely up to you. Which is a good thing, right?
Because we can ONLY CONTROL OURSELVES.
The first thing you need to do is be aware of what you are saying to yourself. Once we identify what we actually say to ourselves, we are going to hold on tight to the good stuff and replace the negatives with positives.
Exercise: Start and keep an Inner Dialogue Journal.
Stop at certain points during the day and notice what you say to yourself about yourself. Make an appointment, say, right before a meal, and listen to what is going inside of your head. Write it down in a journal. Pick different times throughout the day to check in with yourself in this same manner. Mix it up to see how you are feeling and what you are saying at various points in the day.
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO HEAR?
If we are going to replace negatives with positives, we have to discover what is positive to you.
What is it that you want to hear? Let’s start with something fun:
Think of the best compliment you have ever received. It could be anything — a kind word about how you look, appreciation for something you have done, an expression of love,—it doesn’t matter, it just has to be any other words that made you feel good.
Now close your eyes and sit with the memory. Hear the words in your mind. If you are alone, say them aloud. How do you feel? Are you relaxed? Do you have a smile on your face? Do you feel happy? What is your mood? Now just hold onto this feeling, sit with it for a few more moments.
Now, I want you to do the unthinkable… compliment yourself. Yes, you can do that. You do not have to wait for someone else to do it. You have the power to make yourself feel appreciated, loved, sexy, and motivated. You have the power to pull the plug on negative thoughts and plug in the things you want to hear. I know this might sound strange, so I am going to get you started. If you do not want to use any of these, pick your own. They are your compliments.
You look fabulous, terrific, amazing, stupendous, tremendous, superb, irresistible, downright sexy, ridiculously gorgeous, freaking hot as hell!
Let’s try another one:
You look strong, kind, loving, inspiring, dedicated, charming, hardworking, reliable, heroic, a machine, a total badass!
Again, use your own. Although if “competent,” “average,” or “punctual” make your list, you may want to aim a little higher. I will give you another one right now…
You rock! You are brave! And you are beautiful!
Ok, maybe more than one, but hey, you deserve it!
“Proper visualization by the exercise of concentration and willpower enables us to materialize thoughts, not only as dreams or visions in the mental realm but also as experiences in the material realm.” – Paramahansa Yogananda
CLIENT SUCCESS
As a coach, I once had a Pro Athlete client who didn’t practice the principle of visualization. I emphasized to him the importance of going there in his mind before playing any sport or game. I encouraged him to spend time visualizing himself walking around, breathing, feeling, and imagining like he was a child using his imagination again.
Through this practice, my client started to see the game before it happened. He realized that this was similar to what he did when he watched the film of the other teams to understand their game plans. But, he also began to understand the power of walking himself through the game before it happened.
I urged him to take visualization seriously and spend many mental hours focusing on what was important to him and how he would feel once he achieved his goals. I emphasized that it was not just about imagining what would happen, but rather, it was about the act of already being there. When he believed and saw himself in his desired outcome, anything became possible.
So, whether you are an athlete, performer, or someone trying to achieve a personal goal, visualization can be a powerful tool to take your performance to the next level. Don’t underestimate the power of your mind and the benefits of taking the time to visualize and feel the emotions of achieving your goals.
ACTIVITY | Determine the Problems True Cause.
Let’s dive into the heart of the matter. One of our most effective methods for pinpointing issues is conducting a “Cause and Effect” analysis. (found on page 00 of your workbook) This technique helps us uncover the underlying causes and their impacts, allowing us to address the root of the problem effectively.
NOTE: Make sure you list as many issues you can think of. But DIG DEEP! and be as honest and transparent with yourself as you can to achieve the best results.
NOTE | No need to download if workbook availble.
