How to Visualize Effectively, and Install New Habits

Many coaches and ‘law of attraction’ type instructors will tell you to “visualize the end goal and feel the feelings of having accomplished it”.  This is very useful, however many times, not only does this not work but this can be counter-productive.

In fact, the bigger the goal/dream the less likely you will be to achieve the outcome with only this type of visualization.  Would you like to know why?

Firstly, visualizing having achieved big goals can actually have a de-motivating effect because by experiencing the end result in your imagination you get to enjoy the results without having to do the work! 

Also, for the bigger goals/dreams many times we do not know how to get there/what to do to get there. This type of visualization allows us to bypass this process and enjoy the good feelings without needing to know how to get there.

It is good to visualize the end result, but only visualizing the end result will not be enough to get you where you want to go!  

So what do I propose? 

I do recommend taking some time to visualize having achieved the end goal.  This will provide clarity on where you are headed, and will act as a motiviting force towards what you want.

After you are clear on what you want, step out of it, put it into your imagined future and tell yourself “Not yet! You are not allowed to experience that until you do the work!”.

That way you get a taste of the good feelings, but you know that you are not allowed to fully enjoy them until you get there. 

Practicing enjoying the pleasures of the end state without having done the work is like eating a full desert before your dinner.   Do you really want to eat your broccoli after you’ve just enjoyed an entire cake?

There is actually research on this: Kappes, H., & Oettingen, G. (2011). Positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 719–729.

After you are clear on what you want and have a taste of how delicious it will be, I recommend spending the majority of your time visualizing the process of doing the work with joy and pleasure. 

Why is this more beneficial?

Firstly, it presupposes that you need to do ‘work’ in order to achieve your desired outcome.  I put work in quotes because it doesn’t have to feel like ‘work’ while you are doing the things that need to be done.

Secondly, visualizing the process of doing the work with joy and pleasure is a process for installing new habits.  How about that! Visualizing doing certain activities with pleasure greatly increases the probability that you will follow through and perform the activities.  Is this not how your mind works already?   

When deciding what you are going to do in the future, typically we run imagined scenarios in our mind about how it is going to be/feel to do the activity, and then we make a decision based on how that ‘test’ in our minds went.

If it was desirable, we do it.  If undesirable, we don’t.

By infusing those ‘tests’ with joy, the outcome becomes much more desirable and greatly increases the probability that we will choose that activity over other less desirable activities.

So not only will visualizing the process with joy improve the probability that you will achieve your outcomes, but it is also a great process for installing useful habits in yourself.

Visualizing the end goal is important for getting clear on what it is you want,and can be a great tool for inspiring yourself in hard times, but if you want to install new habits and actually achieve your big goals visualizing the process will take you much farther.

What are your biggest takeaways from this article? What do you think? Leave your questions and comments here: https://www.facebook.com/perceptionacademy/posts/1540086529476835

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