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Visualize Your Way to Success

Our minds like to create, hear, and watch stories. It’s why so many of us choose to stream shows as a way to wind down.
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The practice of visualization isn’t so different.
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It’s basically using your mind as a screen on which you project the story of your own success. It’s a way to mentally rehearse how you want to act, or the outcome you want to have, without actually having to be in the situation. Think of it as optimism in your imagination.
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Using your mind’s eye, you can visualize yourself meeting a work goal, completing a marathon, or making healthy food choices.
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Ok, but does it work? Yes! An analysis of more than 60 studies showed that athletes who use mental rehearsal can enhance performance, increase motivation, prepare for problems, and gain mastery.
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And in a review of nearly 30 studies, mental rehearsal by surgeons can help them be better prepared, build their confidence, improve focus, and be better at problem solving.
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By visualizing taking positive actions, your brain is getting trained to make healthy decisions. Because visualization is like a dry run of the real thing, it can boost your motivation and strengthen your ability to be intentional in real-life situations.
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Give it a try today!

Mental Rehearsal Pays Off

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it

Celebrated coach Bob Bowman is best known as the man who mentored swimmer Michael Phelps to 28 Olympic medals (23 of them gold), the most of any Olympian to date. Next month, he heads to Tokyo as part of the U.S. Olympic swim staff.
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He’s also made headlines for using visualization in his training regimens. Through daily mental imagery practices, his athletes essentially trained their brains to win. You can too, no matter your target.
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“You need a vision of where you want to go, what you want to do, who you want to be someday down the road,” says Bowman. “Simply put: In your mind, you must program your internal viewfinder toward a performance, toward an achievement, toward a scene that you see taking place in your future… That’s your vision.”
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Watch this two-minute video of coach Bob Bowman and Michael Phelps, the most successful Olympian in history, describe why and how visualization works.

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