Setting goals-how visualization can help

When we are setting goals one of the hardest things it is to actually know exactly what we want to achieve .Sometimes we feel that we may just go for earning a lot of money but basically we need to be much more specific than that and determine exactly what we want .

One of the key factors is what’s called visualization , which takes a number of different forms but one of them is in sport .If you watch any athletics, for example, you may watch high jumping.Before a high jumpers starts ,what he or she would do is start to look towards the bar and pace out where they’re going to run and then visualize themselves going over the bar .That basically goes into the subconscious mind and becomes very positive which assumes that they will achieve their goal of clearing the bar.

If you watch a 100 metres race, many of the contestants will be looking down the lane and imagining they will cross the line before their competitors. A good example of this is in the Barcelona Olympics. In the final of the 100 metres, Linford Christie just looked down his lane and imagined he would cross the line before any of his competitors. It worked for him as he won the gold medal.

When we set our own goals sometimes visualisation also helps. If, for example we want to earn some extra money to buy a new car, a new camera, a new house or perhaps go on holiday ,one of the best things that we can do is to find a photograph of one of these desires and keep it somewhere that will remind us several times a day of what we want.

For example,if we want a new camera,cut out a photo of the camera in a camera magazine and pin it to the wall. Similarly for anything else that we want.

One of the keys to making this work is looking at the photograph several times a day. What happens is that the neurons in our brains interpret imagery as equivalent to real-life action. Thus, we assume that we own the object in the image and act accordingly. For example, if we are looking at the camera, our mind assumes that we already own it.

Perhaps,we have decided that we want to buy a specific car.

Another key is to make the desire realistic. For example, if we are just starting out and decide that we want to own our own aeroplane in the next 12 months, for most of us that is not achievable. The likelihood is that we will become disillusioned as we realise that it is no more than a dream. Whereas, if we make the goal realistic and manage to achieve it, we will be encouraged to continue to use visualization to help us to achieve our goals.

Initially, I wasn’t sure about visualization, but now I practise it all the time.