The Art of Visualising … Without Visualising

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Do you find it difficult to visualise? This is a problem for many people, because they think that unless they can see their goals in their minds, and with crystal clarity, then they’ll never be able to achieve them. The good news is, this just isn’t true.

Look, common sense tells you that you’ve achieved a huge amount already. You learned to walk … you learned to talk … you learned to read … you learned to get on with people … all difficult skills to master, yet you handled each one of them, and you never once despaired and gave up, and neither did you spend five or ten minutes every morning visualising success in order to make it happen. So there’s the proof, if ever it were needed. You can achieve great things without actually visualising, in the accepted sense. As a matter of fact, you’ve been doing it all your life! The only difference is that if you visualise your goals, you’re doing all you can to hasten the process.

So visualising isn’t a waste of time. Far from it! If you can visualise, it can really get things moving. But you don’t necessarily have to visualise in the way you might think.

How to visualise

the power of the written wordFor one thing, you might just be a person who responds better to the written word. Some people find it much easier to write things down than to see them in their mind’s eye.This is the approach I use, and it works pretty well for me.

If you can write down your goals, and do it in a certain way, then you’re well on the way to ‘visualising’ them. In fact, as you read what you’ve written, the images will probably form in your mind without you even realising it. But whether they do or not makes no real difference. All you need to do is focus your mind on your goals, and do it in the most positive way possible.

An example

I’m going to write the kind of thing you might want to use, if you’re one of those text people, rather than one of the image kind. I’ll first of all create this imaginary person’s goals and then I’ll try to capture them in text.

Let’s say this person (let’s call him Adam) … let’s say Adam has always been rather self-conscious and never really found it easy to communicate. Specially with girls!

Office guy sleepingLet’s say, also, that Adam has had a few medical issues. Let’s give him a recurring problem with spots! And he’s a smoker, so maybe he has a persistent cough. And he’s got a bit of arthritis, in his shoulder joints particularly, that makes it very difficult for him to play cricket, which is something he always loved, but the arthritis means he can’t do it anymore.

And let’s imagine he’s stuck in a dead-end office job and he really hates it. I’m beginning to feel sorry for Adam, I really am 🙁 Oh, and let’s say his social life is a disaster area, leaving him a sad, isolated loner. I’m actually starting to feel guilty for creating this person. Thankfully, he’s only imaginary so to hell with that!

Adam’s text

Now let’s write some text for Adam. And let me state a few ground rules for this part, rules that might help you if you’re writing this kind of thing for yourself.

  • Keep you statements fairly short
  • Keep them positive
  • Use colourful language in order to bring them alive in your mind
  • Rewrite and refine them till they feel right for you
  • Address various sections of your life separately
  • State your goals as though they’ve already been achieved
  • Don’t worry about saying things so blatantly positive in advance
  • And, of course, once you’ve written this text, use it every day!

Okay … now let’s say he wants to say how great life is, and how wonderful he feels every day (which is totally the opposite of how things are for him right now, poor guy). So he might write something like:

“Life really is wonderful now, and every day is like living in Paradise!”

A bit over the top maybe, but hey, if it works for Adam … and it’s certainly better than focusing on how he actually feels most of the time right now.

He hasn’t been sleeping well lately (or for a long time, actually), and he’d like to fix that.

“I sleep well every night.
I wake up feeling good.”

Okay, that’s dealt with. Short and sweet, pretty effective. Now he decides he wants to work on the shoulder problem:

“I don’t have arthritis anymore, and I can play cricket again.”

Let’s boost Adam’s social life!

Time to address his interpersonal problems. He’s had trouble getting on with people, and he thinks maybe he can change things. He writes …

“I don’t get tongue-tied when I’m talking to girls anymore.
If I say something stupid, I just carry on.”

That could probably do with some improvement, but he’s getting the idea. And not being stuck in that miserable cubicle job isn’t helping. Let’s see if he can imagine his way out of it.

“I’m going to get a better job.
It’s going to be interesting, and it’s going to be better paid.”

Again, could be improved, but it’s a start.

Adam’s health needs a lift

Almost forgot – he’s a smoker and he has a persistent cough. He carries on, and writes:

“I’m giving up smoking, and this time I mean it!
I’m not going to be coughing for the rest of my life.”

And he’s still suffering from spots, poor lad. He wants that fixed.

“The whole spots thing is clearing up.
I’m not going to be a victim of spots anymore, it makes me feel self-conscious and miserable.”

Let’s take a look at what Adam’s written

Let’s put it all together and see how it looks.

“Life really is wonderful now, and every day is like living in Paradise!
I sleep well every night.
I wake up feeling good.
I don’t have arthritis anymore, and I can play cricket again.
I don’t get tongue-tied when I’m talking to girls anymore.
If I say something stupid, I just carry on.
I’m going to get a better job.
It’s going to be interesting, and it’s going to be better paid.
I’m giving up smoking, and this time I mean it!
I’m not going to be coughing for the rest of my life.
The whole spots thing is clearing up.
I’m not going to be a victim of spots anymore, it makes me feel self-conscious and miserable.”

Let’s reorganise it a bit, see if we can make better sense of it.

HEALTH
“Life really is wonderful now, and every day is like living in Paradise!
I sleep well every night.
I wake up feeling good.
I don’t have arthritis anymore, and I can play cricket again.
I’m giving up smoking, and this time I mean it!
I’m not going to be coughing for the rest of my life.
The whole spots thing is clearing up.
I’m not going to be a victim of spots anymore, it makes me feel self-conscious and miserable.”

SOCIAL LIFE
“I don’t get tongue-tied when I’m talking to girls anymore.
If I say something stupid, I just carry on.”

WORK
“I’m going to get a better job.
It’s going to be interesting, and it’s going to be better paid.”

The whole thing can be jazzed up a bit

This is better. Could still do with improvement though. Let’s see if we can zazz it up a bit.
Let’s take a look at the sleep section. It’s not very emotionally charged, but he’s new to this. Maybe when he comes back to it later he improves it …

“Every night I fall asleep easily.
I sleep right through, and it’s restful, healthful sleep.
I wake up refreshed every morning, looking forward to the day.”

Just writing that makes him feel better, and he’s starting to think maybe there’s something in this approach 😉