Hello My Friend,
Your imagination is a powerful goal-achieving “machine” used with tremendous success by high achievers in all industries especially sports, music, dance, speaking, writing and other performance based activities. Mental practice is highly effective and all research has supported its use for managing mindset and achieving goals.
A famous story is told about mental practice:
“The Chinese pianist Liu Chi Kung was imprisoned for seven years during the Cultural Revolution, during which time he had no access to a piano. When he returned to giving concerts again after he was released, his playing was better than ever. Asked how this was possible since he had not practiced for seven years, he replied: “I did practice every day. I rehearsed every piece I had ever played, note by note, in my mind.” Bernie Zilbergeld, PH.D
You have to practice in your mind the actual process and activities involved with achieving your goal. We tend to spend most of our time visualizing the end result of celebration and success and while this is helpful with keeping the end in mind, it does not provide the mental practice and empowerment that comes from seeing yourself taking the steps that lead up to the success. In achieving goals, the power of the imagination exercise is in vividly seeing yourself doing the work and taking the action steps that would lead to your success.
Albert Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” and he said he achieved some of his greatest insights first through visual images which he then put into words. He also imagined himself riding on a ray of light, when he was working on his famous relativity theory.
So who are we to not use the strategies that the great Einstein has championed?
Here is a powerful relaxation/imagination exercise to do daily:
1) Spend 15 minutes in a relaxed – super relaxed and comfortable chair or position. Get your mind to be as empty as possible…using deep breathing as your tool.
2) Deep diaphragmatic breathing is what you want. Filling your diaphragm as you to breathe in more oxygen will expand your stomach area; so with hand on tummy you should be able to tell instantly whether your breathing is deep enough. If your stomach expands (pushes out against your hand) you’re good, if your chest expands and/or your shoulder rises, you’re breathing shallow and will not gain the relaxing benefits of deep breathing.
3) In this relaxed position, after a few minutes of controlled deep breathing, sit peacefully for as long as you can up to about 15 minutes.
Visualize your muscle groups from bottom to top, tightening and releasing a few times and then relaxing into a calm stillness.
4) Then immediately following this relaxations session, venture into some imagination playtime as you mentally practice.
Use your imagination to visualize being super productive! See yourself producing more… whether it’s more writing, creating, helping, sales, studying, organizing, researching, coaching, speaking, building, bonding…WHATEVER your desired goal, imagine your optimistic self in a state of blissful productivity. Let your imagination produce a short movie with you as the star and the director. See yourself in action as you actually get specific work done.
Keep this ‘movie’ in your mind going, filling in all the details you can inject while keeping it inspired, light and entertaining. See yourself taking the actual steps needed to achieve the specific daily goal you have for today, this week or this month. See yourself taking these steps one after the other, in order of priority.
Pause the movie a few times and insert a few deep breaths to be sure you remain relaxed.
5) Relax out of your imagination/mental practice session…don’t just end it abruptly and move on. Keep an image of you joyfully producing your work at the front of your mind as you go back to a relaxed state. Using deep breaths as you relax your body, sit back comfortably for another 2 minutes.
If you mentally practice using your powerful imagination on a daily basis, you WILL create the mindset of productivity that is needed to be a consistent producer of amazing outcomes.
And what a way to slay that awful demon of procrastination! 🙂
Wishing you an abundance of joy, productivity and
