Management gurus tell us how important it is to clearly visualize our goals. (And it’s just as true for short-term projects as it is for long-term career ambitions.)
This is because the human mind is a target-driven mechanism. When your target is solidly embedded in your thinking, your unconscious mind will work away in the background to marshal the mental resources you need to bring things to fruition.
But your unconscious mind has to believe in your goals for this to work.
And, surprisingly, we now know that it’s the little details that make our mental imagery believable – not the big picture.
So here’s a nice little trick to help get your goals so real in your mind that they propel you forward with a passion.
Step 1. Start by taking a moment or two to create a great mental picture of the actual point where you’ve achieved your goal – whether it’s the success of having your dream house, or maybe just finishing that important proposal. Put yourself right in that moment when you can throw your hands in the air and say, “Yes, I’ve made it, finished, got there.”
Step 2. Whatever the mental picture that comes to mind, take a moment to let your inner vision scan over the picture. You can close your eyes to make the image clearer if you like.
Step 3. This is the crucial bit. Imagine you’re running a magnifying glass over your mental picture. Let yourself quickly examine bits of detail here and there – the smile on your boss’s face as he congratulates you, the detail of the dashboard in your new Rolls-Royce, the label on the champagne bottle you’re using to celebrate your achievement, the menu in the fancy restaurant where a grateful client is taking you to lunch.
You can spend as much time as you like on this. But even a moment or two is going to add much more credibility and life to the imagery.
So why is this important? It gets down to how the human mind determines what’s real and what isn’t.
There’s plenty of research to show that the more detail you can see, the more vivid you make these ‘future memories’.
Then, the more vivid they are, the more your unconscious mind will accept them as ‘true’ and provide you with the inner compulsion to move towards them.
And if you’ve ever heard the gurus tell you how important it is to ‘believe in yourself’, and wondered how the hell you do it, then this is what it’s all about.
John Cliff. www.johncliff.com
