Visualising success in business sounds a bit mystical and maybe a little weird to some people, even a bit ‘woowoo’.
But it’s worth noting that many sports people use visualisation as part of their preparation for their competitions. And there are many stories of sports people visualising success, whilst not actually physically practising, and still improving their performance.
So, my view on the whole concept of visualisation is that it’s probably a useful activity and it’s certainly not going to be detrimental to your business. And, who knows, it might actually help you to manifest the success that you’re looking for.
What do you need in order to visualise success in business?
All you need is some quiet time, and the will and then your imagination and focus on what you’re looking to visualise into being. Here are some tips for the process.
1. Peace and Quiet
You may already have your favourite place for peace and quiet or your way of making that happen.
If, as maybe the case in the current time, there are lots of people around you, then you could use the potentially quieter time just before you go to sleep, or as soon as you wake up in the morning. That gives you an opportunity to use some time when you’re not distracted or needed by other people. I tend to do my own visualising, as I’m going to sleep.
2. Determine your Goals
Be specific. If you just think about something in broad, general terms, then it’s really difficult to visualise it in any great detail, or to really feel and think what it would look like when that thing has come to pass.
So if you’re talking, for example, about the idea of earning more money in your business, then think more specifically about how much a month, that would be. Or, if it’s about spending more time with your partner or children, then don’t just think about more time, think about what you would actually do with that time to be very specific in what your goal is for this visualisation.
3. Imagine
Now take this specific goal or idea of what the future will be like and be even more specific and detailed. Think about what life will look like once you’ve reached that goal. If it’s about having extra time with your family, what does that look like? What will you be doing? Where will you be going? Think about a particular event or activity that you will be doing with them.
If it’s about earning more money in your business, imagine what your life will be like when that’s happened. Think about the sort of freedom you’ll have as a result of it. Try to think about how you’ll feel, what you’ll be able to see, what you want, even what you’ll be able to smell, maybe, when you have that money or that extra time.
If it’s about money, maybe imagine opening another bank account. See yourself walking into the bank and meeting somebody there or, in the current time, think about opening it up online and physically moving money from your main account into the savings account.
Use all your creative skills to imagine and visualise and see what’s going on in this new situation.
4. See Yourself
As you’re looking and thinking about this new scenario, have a look at you as if an observer was looking at you. So look at who you are, what you’re doing, what you look like, how you’re acting, what your personality is.
Picture yourself doing the things that you’ve imagined you’re going to be doing in the future, whether that’s going to meetings or spending some money or spending some time.
Watch yourself doing whatever it is and really try to make it vivid with all the colours and the sights and the sounds and the feelings of how that would be or how that will be in the future.
5. Bring it Home
Imagine this future for a specific date and time. So, not just ‘some time’ in the future. Think about the season or think about the month, think about the other activities that you’re doing around the same time to really draw you into that future at a certain time in the future to get really clear on what it looks like and when it is.
6. Energise the Visualisation
As you visualise yourself in the future, try breathing energy into it to make it truly real.
I think this is possibly the hardest part of all this.
It’s one thing to think about what you would like in the future and even to get specific (although that’s quite hard at times), but to really put as much energy and effort into the visualisation as you can, is really difficult, because it relies on creativity and the ability to really ‘see’ something that we don’t actually see in real life yet. And that’s the key.
7. Accept the Vision
Often we can visualise success in business. We can think about all the detail. We can think about our goals. We can think about what things will be like once we’ve achieved the thing that we’re thinking about. But we still hang on to the feeling of ‘it won’t work for me, it’s not for me, I’m not good enough, my life isn’t going to work out in that way’.
And that’s one of the things that gets in the way of visualisation and manifestation.
And remember, it’s not just about visualising the future and then not taking any action! If you think about sports people and their visualisations, they turn up, they show up and they compete in order to achieve the thing that they visualised.
It’s not as simple as just imagining the future and then sitting back and waiting for it to happen.
We’ve got to take action. We’ve got to move towards it. We’ve got to keep doing the things that we need to do to get us to that place that we want to be at.
Mind you, if we’re doing all that against a backdrop of not believing that it’s what’s going to happen or that we’re not worthy or that we’re not capable, then that really will stand in our way.
So accept this vision as do-able, and that it’s real and possible. Embrace it, own it, and take the action to move towards it.
Visualising for success is a lot about building confidence. And it’s also about opening up your mind to the possibilities. Tapping into your mind’s capabilities, and your brain’s tendency to seek out opportunities and move towards them.
If you’re thinking about something in the right sort of way, then you’re much more likely to be able to move towards it and make it happen.
As I said, it’s not just about visualising the future. It’s about taking the action to get there. And it links with why you fail to meet your goals that we talked about before and the whole concept of ‘if you don’t know what you’re aiming for then you’re not likely to get there’. And in this case it’s about knowing what you’re aiming for in absolute and ‘felt’ detail.