| By Vaughn Gray
We all create our own world. Our expectations, our beliefs, and our self image have more influence over our lives than any other variables that we can control. Successful people from every walk of life stress the power of positive thinking and positive self image. It can all sound a bit touchy-feely and unrealistic, but there are good scientific reasons why positive thinking translates into a positive life. One of the biggest reasons is that other people are incredibly intuitive in sensing how we view ourselves, and most people end up treating us the way that we think we deserve to be treated. Our self image also affects the goals we set, and the motivation we bring into achieving them. If you don’t set lofty goals, what are the chances that you will do exceptional things (check out Setting and Achieving Goals)? If you don’t believe in yourself, you won’t feel like you have a chance to achieve your goals, and, as a result, you won’t have the motivation to try. Creating your world is all about believing in your ability to achieve the life you desire, and visualizing that life coming to be.
Create Your World: Principles
1. Visualize Success in Rich Detail
What do you want from life? Financial success? Excellence on the field or court? Superb grades? A loving relationship? The first step to getting any of these things is coming to believe that they are really possible. To do this, picture what your life will be like when you have them. How will you behave in your new position at work with its added responsibility and prestige? How will you perform when you emerge as a star on your team? When you richly visualize getting what you want, it is easier to believe that achieving your goals is truly within your grasp. Once you can see yourself in a new light in your mind’s eye, you’ll realize that you really can change your life and achieve what you desire. This realization brings with it the motivation to make the changes that will get you to your goals. In addition, visualizing yourself achieving your goals creates patterns in your brain which directly contribute to your ability to achieve. For instance, picturing yourself hitting a home run or a 280 yard golf drive actually activates some of the same neural circuits in your brain that are involved in doing the activity (for more on this, check out The Power of Visualization). This sounds incredible, but experiment after experiment has confirmed it. In this way, visualization is like practice for your brain. And practice makes perfect. The same rule applies to visualizing interactions. Picturing the way a conversation or meeting will go creates a script in your brain. When the actual meeting comes, both you and the other people you are interacting with (who will be reacting to you) will tend to fall into the script.
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