One of the things that makes it harder for us to achieve our goals is the perceived gap between where we are now and where we want to be. The two seem so far apart that getting from one to the other seems inconceivably difficult, and often this puts us off sufficiently that we may not even attempt undertaking the journey.
But using creative visualization you can help yourself overcome this barrier to success by preparing yourself (and your unconscious mind) to be ever alert and ready to take advantage of opportunities when they occur, and to also have the grit and determination to stay focussed on a goal until its completion.
Anyone can use the following technique to help achieve the goals they desire so please think of a goal you have that you are having difficulty attaining. If none comes immediately to mind, stop reading now and spend a moment thinking about it then, when you have chosen a goal, perform the following exercise:
Visualize this
Sit upright in your chair so that your back is straight and your legs are uncrossed and next to each other, with your feet slightly apart. Now rest one hand on each of your thighs with the palm facing upwards and take a few slow, deep breaths. In future when you practice this exercise you’ll remember what you have to do and should close your eyes for best results. But for now simply imagine that your eyes are closed as you follow these instructions:
- Lift your left hand up a couple of inches so that it’s floating in the air. Visualize that it holds the essence of you as you are right now, including who you are, everything you do, the things and people you know, and so on. Keep your hand in that position.
- Now lift up your right hand to the same height and imagine that it is holding the essence of you in the future with your goal accomplished, including who you are then, and everything about you, your life and the people you come into contact with. Keep both hands floating there.
- Spend a little while focussing on each hand in turn, and considering what each represents. Do they feel different in any ways? Is one heavier or lighter than the other? Does one feel warmer or colder? Do you get the impression that one hand is smaller or larger, older or younger, softer or harder? Or do you notice anything else that’s different between the two? Whatever you notice, simply be aware of it.
- Now imagine that each of your hands is an island and that between and surrounding them is nothing but miles of clear blue sea.
- See yourself as if you are up in the sky looking down onto these islands and note how considerably far apart from each other they appear. However, over the next few instructions you are going to visualize getting from one island to the other in a variety of different ways in quick succession, and (among other things) the gap between them should appear to diminish.
- Start by visualizing that a bridge appears linking the two islands together. It’s a very long bridge covering many, many miles, and there are numerous spans of roadway held up by towers anchored firmly to the ocean floor. Now imagine that you are down on the left island standing on the start of the bridge and see yourself running all the way across until you reach the right island.
- As soon as you reach your destination imagine that you are back at the start again, but this time you have a bicycle and can get across the bridge more easily.
- When you finish that journey go back again to the start and this time you are in your car, so see yourself drive across the bridge in next to no time.
- Now imagine that instead of a bridge there’s a long underwater tunnel linking the islands with a train that you take to get from one to the other. Follow yourself taking this journey.
- As soon as you get to the other side imagine that you are back again at the left island and that the tunnel is gone but, instead, you are in a plane. So see it take off and enjoy the journey as you fly from the left to right island. Look down and enjoy the view until you arrive.
- Now, quickly changing scene again, and imagine that you are piloting a mini submarine. See your underwater journey along the sea bottom among the seaweed and fishes until you get to the right island.
- Now imagine that you are a world class swimmer and simply swim from the left to the right island. Remember to put yourself right there in the water and feel its splash and the power of your strokes pushing you forwards.
- As soon as you arrive start another journey in which you can fly like an eagle. This time you don’t need any physical mode of transport, you simply jump up into the air on the left island, then flap your wings until you are airborne. Keep on going and gently land on the right island.
- Now return immediately to the left island and see that a zip wire has been erected between the two islands, so climb into the sling hanging from it, feel yourself get pushed off to a speeding start, and sense the wind as it whistles past you. Hear the whine of the roller on the steel wire as you whizz between the islands.
- Next time you return to the left island, find yourself standing on a Star Trek transporter panel when all of a sudden your body starts to fade and become wispy, as you feel all the atoms in it being beamed across to the right island. At some point you notice that more of you is now in the right island and then you fade back into your complete self over there.
- For your next journey notice that there are two huge trampolines, one on each island, and so start bouncing higher and higher on the left trampoline until you are ready to take a giant leap that will take you up and at just the right angle to come landing down on the right trampoline, where you bounce a few more times until you come to a rest.
- Finally, see yourself simply standing on the left island and then deciding that you wish to be on the right one. So close your eyes, count to three and open them again, at which time you can see you are now on the right island.
- Now bring your focus back up to your original vantage point in the sky and imagine that you can see that all the means of transitioning between the two islands are in position all at the same time. You can see the bridge and the tunnel linking the two, and for the modes of transport such as the plane and submarine you can see silver strands of energy showing the route they take between the two islands.
- Now remember that the two islands are your hands and that these bridges, tunnels and silver strands are connecting your hands to each other – it feels like there are numerous forms of both matter and energy connecting them together.
- Now slowly bring your hands up until they are at eye level. Then bring them closer towards your head so that each hand is near one of your ears with your head exactly between them.
- Now, with your consciousness lovcated right in the middle of your head, feel all that energy, and all the pathways you made being absorbed into it.
- Soak everything in until the bridge, tunnel and silver threads have all been fully assimilated.
- Let your hands fall back onto your thighs, breath a few slow and deep breaths and, when you are ready, open your eyes again.
By practicing this exercise you make many new and different metaphorical connections between who and where you are now, and where you want your desired goal to take you (and who you want to be then). This symbolism is especially powerful because it is what your unconscious mind specializes in (just think of how symbolic and visual your dreams are). So by providing these images in rapid succession your unconscious clearly gets the message that you absolutely want to achieve the goal you have set, and it will do everything in its power to help you.
Now you may wonder what on earth your unconscious can do to help you attain your goal, and the answer is a great deal. For example, because it is ever awake and ever vigilant (even when you sleep), your unconscious will make you aware of any opportunities it spots that may come along, even when your conscious attention is elsewhere. For example, a link you might not normally click while browsing the Internet may seem interesting to your unconscious which may then prompt you to investigate it, possibly leading to some information you can use. This works in the same way as when you learn a new word and then hear it everywhere for a few days, because you are primed to look out for it. Your unconscious mind will also help you find the motivation and stamina required to keep working on goals that may take some time to achieve.
On a physical level, every time you think something, new neural pathways are created in your brain. So by visualizing all these different ways of getting from the left to right island, you form a group of related pathways which, by nature of the way our brains work, will then be added to when you consider real world means of achieving your goals. In much the same way that you must often provide a seed crystal in order to grow larger ones, this group of visualizations will work as a seed over which your real actions and methods of achieving your goals will grow.
For dozens more powerful visualizations that will help you achieve the things you desire and the changes you need in life, please check out my book Creative Visualization For Dummies.
