Visualizing is the key to Realizing. Used by all high achievers, either naturally
or through conscious discipline, visualizing is the key to realizing. Your unconscious mind drives behavior, and
it doesn’t know the difference between something that’s vividly imagined
and something that’s happened on the physical plane. In short, your thoughts
and feelings make it real. Time and time again people tell me that they
see themselves in their visualizations but they aren’t getting results. There are only two reasons for this:
They’re either not taking action, make-believe without action might be fun
for a child, but it’s childish for an adult, or they’re not visualizing correctly. They’re seeing themselves as though projected
on a distant movie screen rather than seeing what they want through their own
eyes, smelling the smells, feeling the feelings, hearing the sounds. Let’s say your goal is getting your MBA. Don’t
merely view yourself receiving your diploma; hear and feel your shoes clip clap
across the wooden planks of the stage as the dean extends the heavy black casing
of the diploma into your hands. Look out into the audience from center
stage, catch your dad taking pictures and give him your proudest smile. See how
you can tell, even at this distance, that Mom is crying. Feel the difference? A friend of mine had fallen on hard times
and took a job working at a high-end lingerie boutique waiting on wealthy
patrons, a painful experience until she began passing the time visualizing. As she hung the shop’s
cashmere bathrobes, she’d imagine the feeling of being enveloped in one after
a long leisurely bath in her (future, although she imagined it in the present)
sunken jet-pool bathtub. She’d sashay across the store after customers
left, holding up the Turkish cotton nightgowns against her body in the mirror,
slipping her feet into a pair of plush chenille slippers, imagining frequenting
this expensive boutique as a paying customer. Frequently her mind would race to Paris where
she’d be having coffee with her boyfriend just before going shopping. Within a few years she indeed
owned the big bathtub, had a maid who washed her silk lingerie, and
had booked her first flight to Europe. Let’s revisit something we already know. Quantum physics tells us that we
hold our world together with our attention. In fact, the most widely accepted
principle in quantum physics is called the observer effect. Without
going into complicated detail, the observer effect basically tells you that you
get what you’re looking for. Think about it. If you want references in your world that
people are mean, nasty, and selfish, can you find them? Of course you can. Conversely, if you
want references that people are loving, caring, and kind, can you find those as
well? You bet. It’s all there and the bottom line is you
get what you’re looking for. That’s the observer effect. Now, I’m assuming that you’ve chosen your
intention. So the most difficult
second step is to direct and control where to place your attention. That’s
why you need intention triggers and attention grabbers to lock you on track. These keep your inner vision more powerful
than mere outer observations. When is the best time to visualize? All the time. Every chance you get. The mind thinks in pictures. Period. I don’t care what you’ve been told—
your mind thinks in pictures. Some schools of thought state that there are
people who are more auditory, others who are more feeling based, and those
who are primarily visual. This is
true; yet no matter what, we all, every one of us, think in pictures. So make
your goals even more believable by surrounding yourself with magnetizing
images. The picture of your goal plants a seed in
the garden of your unconscious mind and your unconscious then does two things:
one - sends out the offer wave to the future, and two - moves your body
into action. You’ve probably heard of vision boards by
now; most people have. I’ve been
teaching this concept, and even had my seminar participants make them in my
live events, since the mid-nineties. But have you made one yet? Now is the
time and I’ve got a few tricks and twists I bet you haven’t heard of yet. You’ll need a big piece of construction
paper or corkboard. Now collect
images of everything you want to attract into your life. Use photographs, artwork,
magazine photos, or printed Internet images. Make it a fun project—
like being a kid back in kindergarten art period. If you’ve got kids, make it a
family project—get them to cut out images and paste them on their own
boards. Or even make one for the entire family. Money and the toys it brings
don’t have to be so heavy and serious! Blast loud music that inspires you,
maybe even makes you want to dance. Label it "my treasure map" or whatever
makes it exciting for you. But it has to be fun. Remember, your feelings are
vibrations and send powerful attractive forces out into the universe. What if you’re embarrassed for people to
see these boards? Do they seem
too cheesy to display out in the open? What if you don’t want to expose
something so personal around the still negative people in your environment? Make small ones and put them inside your private
closets or cabinets that you open frequently. In some ways this is even better than a big
one. Hang one
inside the door of your medicine cabinet so it catches you by pleasant surprise
each night and morning. Energy flows where attention goes and you
need constantly and consistently to control your attention. That’s why attention
grabbers are key. You need to have them everywhere so you’ll
see them all day long in a variety of places. Here’s how to take a common idea and ramp
it up a notch. Make your
board 3-D. Cut out colored copies of your face and the faces of people you
love (even your dogs), and paste them on top of people doing the things you
desire to do. There’s your head on a person skiing. There you are lying on a
beach, hugging your partner in front of the Eiffel Tower, playing golf at
Augusta, standing with your family and your dogs in front of your summer
cabin, you get the idea. Then paste on the stuff from your life: a
matchbook from the restaurant you wish to frequent more
often, the brochure from the bed-and-breakfast you dream of visiting or
owning, the dried flowers from your wedding bouquet (to help strengthen your
marriage) not just magazine copy, but things that mean something to you
from your physical world. Then—this is key—when you look at these
images in multiple places every day, several times a day, imagine that you’ve
already had these experiences and that these boards are merely your photo albums. Close your eyes and relive
those moments through your own eyes again. If you can see it and feel it,
you’re on a high-speed path to achieving it. As always, get busy! Intention Triggers
You can also create intention triggers to carry in your purse or put by your
bed to flip through before you fall asleep. Personally, I love having powerful
images that emit high vibrations in my line of sight. One of my friends
has hers beautifully framed. They grab her attention during a call, or
when she needs to take a break from the computer
and focus elsewhere for a minute. Take photos of your larger board or photos
that make you feel abundant, and post them everywhere. I’ve had clients make collapsible boards
that are portable. Go to the showroom, sit in your dream car,
and have someone take a picture of you in it or of the view you
see sitting in the driver’s seat, looking over the dashboard, with your hands on the
steering wheel. Do you understand
what we’re doing here? Quotes and sayings inspire too. My friend Linda walked dogs in her neighborhood
each morning with her neighbor, Brooke, who was pregnant with
her second child. Brooke was having a terrible time with morning
sickness. She felt ugly, fat, and guilty for not having
an ounce of energy for romance with her husband. To lighten Brooke’s load, Linda used her
label-making machine to create inspirational stickers for Brooke’s
bathroom mirror. In her eye
line while she brushed her teeth, washed her face, or brushed her hair, Brooke
saw these words: “This is a blip in my long and beautiful life.” “Our baby is
happy and healthy, the perfect addition to our loving family.” “My body is
fit and strong. I am beautiful and my husband’s hot!” Those stickers made Brooke smile every day,
helping her feel good and focus on what she wanted during a challenging time
in her life. That painful
time truly was a blip. The pain was real—Brooke’s daughter was
born ten weeks premature—but she’s now strong and
healthy and into everything, the perfect whirlwind addition to their family. Brooke signed up for Pilates, got
in great shape, and she and her husband just returned from an intimate vacation
together, where they fell in love all over again. The idea is that each time you glance at your
dream images, it grabs your attention and focuses you on your greater
goal of wealth, health, and fulfillment, and also keeps you in harmony internally and
externally. The idea of
stepping into that reality becomes closer each time you do. Experiencing the sensory details and feeling
the feelings as if you were there right now taps into one of the mind’s
most powerful tools. A reporter
once turned to Walt Disney’s nephew at the opening of the EPCOT Center
and said, “It’s too bad your Uncle Walt didn’t get to see this, isn’t it?” Roy Disney immediately replied, “Oh, Uncle
Walt did see this, and that’s why you see it now.” Doing what wealthy people do right now. Here’s another trigger and grabber that
I promise works. Years ago I heard a speaker state that I should
keep a $100 bill in my pocket at all times. This was in my early twenties, back when $100
was a lot of money. I went to the bank, took out the cash, put
it in my money clip over a stack of one-dollar bills, and immediately
felt like a high roller. I never spent that hundred, always just the
inside cash. This gave me a constant
visual of having money in my pocket. Later I began carrying more, going
back to the idea that if I’m an $800-or-more-per-day person, I should
carry at least a day’s worth of money in my pocket at all times. As my wad grew, I’d walk into my favorite
store, look at something expensive, and know that I could pay cash for it that
minute. Not that I did, mind
you, but I’d go into the vibration of financial abundance just knowing that I
could. That felt great! Can you feel the power of that versus having
a few crumpled ones in your pocket that you squeak
out every once in a while like a little rabbit ? "Eek, squeak, I want to be
abundant." Ain’t gonna happen. I see
people shopping with that tight, vise-grip look on their faces and I want to say,
“Loosen up, my friend. You’re scaring money away.” Every time you reach in your pocket and feel
cash, it sends a powerful message to your unconscious: “Hey, I’ve
got money.” Here’s a Weekend
project. Walk into nice stores with the “job” of
spending that cash in your pocket, but only in your mind. You don’t even have to do it, just know
and feel that you can. Try on the $3,000 Armani suits, imagining
that you’ve got the cash to buy them now. Try on Rolex watches, Tiffany wedding rings,
and couture ball gowns with the expectation of owning them. This raises
your energy. Shift your mind-set and prepare your intention. Go sit under a shade tree in a beautiful park
and feel the well-being rise up inside you. That’s a great way to shift your mind-set
without involving money. If your park is too crowded or distracting,
drive across town and sit under a thick, abundant elm where you can
watch children playing with nothing but time and love on their side. Tour a rambling museum and appreciate
fine art, or sit in a large airy library surrounding yourself with the
wisdom of the ages, or visit a luxurious hotel lobby. Read autobiographies by famous people; they
often have riveting rags-to-riches stories. Read theirs and use your imagination while
scripting your own story. If it’s convenient, visit a castle as I
did. There are infinite possibilities,
get creative. The trick is to embrace the royalty within
you wherever you are.
