THE POWER OF VISUALIZATION

There is the story of a champion bowler who never experienced failure. He claims that as a child his father would set the pins up in the gutter, since that’s invariably where he threw the ball. But when he started sending it down the alley, the father set the pins in the alley. There is no doubt that success breeds success, and that visualizing yourself as a success does much to ensure that you do become successful.

Psychology Today (July/85) reported on the use of video playbacks of athletes. David Drazin, a clinical psychologist, created tapes of athletes at their best: winning a race, beating an opponent at tennis, or sinking a putt. The videotapes were voiced over with commentary from the athletes describing the sensations and thoughts they had at the time.

The athletes watched the tapes immediately before competing to give themselves a boost in self-confidence. According to a study completed by Drazin on the effectiveness of these tapes, golfers who viewed tapes of themselves at their best had the highest scores in “putting” competitions.

A further example of visualization in action was provided on a cassette tape of Jack Kinder, Jr. Two lowest ranked members of a California State tennis team evidently shot to almost instant stardom after participating in a mind-programming process. The tennis players were videotaped every day during practice and all the mistakes and bad shots edited out. The composite tape eventually produced showed the players playing to perfection, making faultless serves, volleys and shots. The tennis players viewed these edited tapes of themselves, and practiced what they saw. Within two weeks they had changed their lives and became undefeated representatives of their college team. By changing the way they viewed themselves, they became successful at what they did.

Bill Glass, during one of his talks, told the story of Jim Brown, who had gained over 200 yards against New York. When asked after the game how he had managed to get himself so “up” to perform the way he did, Jim brown replied that all week long before the game, he saw himself in his imagination doing the job – catching passes, making blocks, end runs – reacting to every conceivable situation. And when he did perform well, he wasn’t surprised.

Athletes who do well see themselves doing well, long before the game. If you want to be successful in what you do, you must burn into your mind a picture of what you want to become. Norman Vincent Peale, in his book, Positive Imaging, claims there is a tendency in human nature to become precisely what we imagine ourselves to be. It goes further than “positive thinking”, since you don’t merely think about a hoped-for goal, you visualize it intensely.

So visualize what you want to become. See yourself managing your own clothing store, or speaking to an audience of 2000 people, or designing and manufacturing that novel children’s game you have been thinking about. Or see yourself landing that elusive prospect, making the big sale, or reaching that challenging weekly goal. Visualize in detail. See yourself performing, taking specifications, giving specific orders – and collecting and depositing specific checks. See yourself achieving those goals you set for yourself, whatever they may be. Then do everything within your power to make it happen. Hard work is effective. Visualization is effective. But both together are unbeatable.