Visualization Doesn't Work

Visualizing is something that several people have trouble with. It can be hard to make a vision of things that haven't yet happened, and even if your imagination is great, it's usually not enough. Most personal development trainers agree that the most important part of visualizing is that is feels real. But they rarely tell you how. Often people try a few times and give up as they simply can't create a vision that feels real to them.

The problem mostly stems from the language. While the word visualizing suggests that you have to create a picture in your mind, not everything thinks this way. For some people a mental picture will never feel real. These people simply won't ever be able to visualize.

Obviously creating images and a vision of the future does work for some people, but we need to broaden the way we think of visualization so that it can assist everyone.

I suggest changing how you view visualizing. Simply put, you may need to change that word to something that does fit with the way you think. I prefer to use the very broad concept of Experiencing. If I think on my future and goals images rarely come to mind, but I still experience what my future might be like using other forms of perception. I think of the atmosphere I will have around me instead of the picture of my goal. If I have a goal to move to Hawaii I will focus on how the air feels around me, how hot the sun is on my skin, the flowery smell in the air. If I have a goal to buy a brand new car I focus on how the leather will feel on my arms, how nice that new car smell is. Sometimes a bunch of images will pop up in my mind,but the goal is more realistic if I can truly feel the atmosphere and I will become more emotionally connected to my goal.

To understand this you must think about WHY people visualize. It’s not just about seeing what the future might be like, it's about making yourself emotionally connected to a goal, it's about creating your own desired outcome through focus and attraction. Visualizing is all about creating emotion, that feeling of attachment, exhilaration and excitement for your goal. So what creates an emotional response for you? What makes things you imagine feel real?

Once you know what illicits an emotional response in you, think about and experience your goal that way. If sound creates an emotional feel for you, you can imagine the sound of birds on the beach, of glass clinking at your favorite restaurant, of your kids laughing and playing on a family holiday. Smell could be your emotional trigger, think of the smells in a brand new car, of the salt water at the beach, of the flowers outside a vacation home. It may be touch, and this one definitely works for me. How does the air feel around you? How soft is the new couch at your lovely new home? Can you feel the gas pedal resist your foot in the new car?

Often when you start by picturing your atmosphere through sound, touch, smell, etc the images will come to your mind without any effort. Your mind fills in any blank to complete your experience. You’ll find that as you come out of your experience that you really feel you were there, you really feel the calm, happy, and excited emotions attached to achieving your goal. Knowing what is ahead of you will help you to push forward through any obstacles to get what you know you deserve. And you will attract the experiences you want faster than you ever could have imagined.