Visualization is a fun practice to help you think about your dreams and goals and to bring your mindset to a place where you are ready to achieve those goals. If you want something, visualize yourself already having it. I’ve found this practice to be a helpful way to find the path toward positive thinking and success, and I’m here to tell you how it will work for you!

How does visualization work?

When you have a goal ingrained in your mind, you will naturally make decisions that move you toward that goal. When you acknowledge and make space for your desires, you will be more likely to prioritize them.

Visualization works by focusing on your dreams and thinking about them as though they are already your reality in order to align yourself with them and to become the person who can and will accomplish them.

Athletes often use visualization techniques to get into the right mindset before a game or tournament. They imagine how their body will move to kick the ball or get the hole in one. They focus on how it will feel to finish the marathon in order to help get them through the pain and exhaustion of running the marathon. A big part of success is getting past the mental blocks, and visualization is one way to do that- whether you're an athlete or not.

Three ways to practice visualization

1. Imagine your ideal future

Go for a relaxing walk through nature, lay down in bed or on a yoga mat, or simply sit somewhere quiet. Practicing meditation first to calm your thoughts and get you in the right mindset may be helpful before this exercise!
Now imagine yourself at a point in the future where you have the things you want and think about your dream day:

  • Where do you live? This can be a certain city or country, or simply something like “by the beach”.
  • What does your home look like? Is it an apartment, a house, a van? Are you traveling?
  • What do you have for breakfast?
  • What are you doing for work? How much money do you have?
  • What is your schedule and lifestyle like? What are you doing in your free time?
  • What clothes are you wearing?
  • Who are you spending your time with, surrounding yourself with?
  • How healthy do you feel? Are you exercising a certain way, eating a certain diet?
  • Where are you mentally? Have you overcome something you’ve previously struggled with? What positive things do you believe about yourself?
  • What goals have you achieved at this point in your life? What new goals are you working towards?

When you imagine these things, think about them in the present tense, as though you are already there. Don’t let your current reality or limiting beliefs get in your way. Don’t restrict yourself by thinking “well that dream is too big”, or “I could never make it there”. This dream space is all yours, and in it everything is possible and attainable.

2. Write down your goals

Now that you have your goals clearly visualized, grab a pen and paper and write them down! At this point, only write down your outcomes. The steps you will take to achieve these goals are important and you’ll want to think about them at some point, but right now you are focusing completely on your end goals.

How you outline your goals is completely personal to you. Some people like to set long-term goals, like five to ten years in the future. Personally, I feel as though my long-term dreams can be ambiguous and ever-evolving, so I try to make specific short-term goals (within a year or less) that point me in the direction of those long-term dreams.

3. Create a vision board

This is a perfect way to keep your goals at the forefront of your mind on a daily basis and to help them feel real if you are someone like me who needs something tangible to focus on.

Make a collection of pictures, quotes, or other specific items that embody and remind you of your goals. Choose images that give you the feeling of having already achieved those goals, or that powerfully inspire you to do so. Pinterest is my favorite place to do this and is the perfect place to start! You can create a board for each of your goals, then go through and pick out a few of your favorites to print off. With your images cut out or quotes written down, pin everything on a cork board or tape them to the wall somewhere you’ll see them, like above your desk or on the bathroom mirror.

Some items may even be helpful or symbolic to carry with you. Actor Jim Carrey wrote himself a $10,000,000  check early in his career and carried it in his wallet- he wanted to be successful enough to cash the check one day.

Look at your vision board each day and think about how you can move towards aligning yourself with your vision. What decision can you make today that honors your ideal future self?

Change takes time

It is important to remember that as human beings we are constantly changing, evolving, and growing. The dreams you have right now may not be the same a year or two from now (or even a month from now), and that is okay! Like the seasons, we do not stay the same. The paths our lives take are almost never linear. Learn to trust yourself and listen to what your intuition is telling you - let it guide you and shift you in different directions.

If you feel like life is throwing things at you left and right that don’t align with your goals, it may be time to do these exercises again and re-evaluate what it is you want and think about where you may be going wrong. Have you been letting self-doubt sabotage your journey? Are there some hard things you’ve been refusing to do that have kept you from being where you want to be? Or are these unexpected changes in life perhaps providing opportunities for new kinds of growth?

It might be time to set new goals and create a new vision board. Or perhaps it’s simply time to have patience and kindness towards yourself- those big goals you made may take a while to reach, but right now, you are exactly where you need to be. Practice gratitude for the things you already have and reflect on what you’ve already accomplished.