The art of visualization

The art of visualization to help you make your goals part of your subconscious reflex habits, like brushing your teeth or driving your car. Imagine that you're driving home. Think about the steps you take. You start the car, turn left at the light on Main Street, take a right to the expressway, and head west to the foothills. These interim steps break down your final objective, into easily segmented steps. Psychologists call this interior model or template a "cognitive map." The cognitive map gives you an image by which to check progress at every moment. If you expect to reach a landmark in less time than you are taking on this particular trip, you might speed up a little to get back on pace. Scientists refer to the process of adjusting your actions to fit your image of what is right as using a "negative feedback loop." This doesn't mean that you berate yourself when you get off track. It means you mentally correct to the target.

Gary Player, one of golf's immortals, gave an impromptu demonstration of this process during a Master's Tournament he won many years ago. He lined up his shot, hit a solid seven iron, and laid the ball down softly on the green forty feet past the pin placement. For me, that would have been a sensational shot. For Player, it was a very long putt for a birdie, and he wanted to correct his error.

Without changing his expression, he looked at this caddie, who handed him his eight iron. Player walked back to where the ball had been, went into his stance, glanced at his target, and then swung through, watching the imaginary ball land dead to the pin. You could almost see him thinking to himself, "That's the way to play this shot. The eight iron was the proper club. Next time, I'll put it right there." Tiger Woods has this same uncanny ability, as a result of discipline, practice and concentration, which I watched him display once again when he won the 2005 Masters Tournament in a playoff.

American physiologist, Edmund Jacobsen, has pioneered remarkable studies showing that when an individual imagines running, small but measurable amounts of contraction actually take place in the leg muscles. In the same way, when you create a vivid, frightening image in your mind, your body responds with a quickened pulse, elevated blood pressure, sweating, goosebumps, and dryness of the mouth.

I remember feeling all of those symptoms when I was twelve years old and my friends dared me to run through a farmer's pasture that had the biggest, ugliest, meanest bull I'd ever seen corralled there. Above the fence that we were supposed to crawl through before sprinting safely to the other side was a cryptic sign the farmer had posted for trespassers: "Don't attempt to cross this field unless you can do it in 9.9 seconds. The bull can do it in 10 flat!" That sign motivated several involuntary muscle spasms in me, and I had to change into a fresh pair of overalls when I got home.

Conversely, when you hold a strong, positive, relaxing image in your mind, your body responds with a lowered heart rate and decreased blood pressure and your muscles tend to relax. These functions take place automatically, unconsciously, and you're seldom aware of their cause. You think they "just happened."

This week begin to utilize or increase your utilization of the art of visualizing your dreams, so that accomplishment of your goals simply becomes a habit!
-- Denis Waitley