Visualize and Affirm Your Desired Outcomes By Jack Canfield

Visualizing A Step-by-Step Guide

You have within you an awesome power that most of us have never been taught to use. Elite athletes use it. The super rich use it. And peak performers in all fields are now starting to use it. That power is called visualization. The daily practice of visualizing your dreams as already complete can rapidly accelerate your achievement of those dreams. Visualization of your goals and desires accomplishes four very important things.

1. It activates your creative subconscious which will start generating creative ideas to achieve your goal.

2. It programs your brain to more readily perceive and recognize the resources you will need to achieve your dreams.

3. It activates the law of attraction, thereby drawing into your life the people, resources, and circumstances you will need to achieve your goals.

4. It builds your internal motivation to take the necessary actions to achieve your dreams.

Visualization is really quite simple. You sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and imagine - in as vivid detail as you can - what you would be looking at if the dream you have were already realized. Imagine being inside of yourself, looking out through your eyes at the ideal result.

Mental Rehearsal

Athletes call this visualization process "mental rehearsal," and they have been using it since the 1960s when we learned about it from the Russians. All you have to do is set aside a few minutes a day. The best times are when you first wake up, after meditation or prayer, and right before you go to bed. These are the times you are most relaxed. Go through the following three steps:

1. Imagine sitting in a movie theater, the lights dim, and then the movie starts. It is a movie of you doing perfectly whatever it is that you want to do better. See as much detail as you can create, including your clothing, the expression on your face, small body movements, the environment and any other people that might be around. Add in any sounds you would be hearing - traffic, music, other people talking, cheering. And finally, recreate in your body any feelings you think you would be experiencing as you engage in this activity.

2. Get out of your chair, walk up to the screen, open a door in the screen and enter into the movie. Now experience the whole thing again from inside of yourself, looking out through your eyes. This is called an "embodied image" rather than a "distant image." It will deepen the impact of the experience. Again, see everything in vivid detail, hear the sounds you would hear, and feel the feelings you would feel.

3. Finally, walk back out of the screen that is still showing the picture of you performing perfectly, return to your seat in the theater, reach out and grab the screen and shrink it down to the size of a cracker. Then, bring this miniature screen up to your mouth, chew it up and swallow it. Imagine that each tiny piece - just like a hologram - contains the full picture of you performing well. Imagine all these little screens traveling down into your stomach and out through the bloodstream into every cell of your body. Then imagine that every cell of your body is lit up with a movie of you performing perfectly. It's like one of those appliance store windows where 50 televisions are all tuned to the same channel.

When you have finished this process - it should take less than five minutes - you can open your eyes and go about your business. If you make this part of your daily routine, you will be amazed at how much improvement you will see in your life.

Create Goal Pictures

Another powerful technique is to create a photograph or picture of yourself with your goal, as if it were already completed. If one of your goals is to own a new car, take your camera down to your local auto dealer and have a picture taken of yourself sitting behind the wheel of your dream car. If your goal is to visit Paris, find a picture or poster of the Eiffel Tower and cut out a picture of yourself and place it into the picture. With today's technology, you could probably make an even more convincing image using your computer.

Create a Visual Picture and an Affirmation for Each Goal

We recommend that you find or create a picture of every aspect of your dream life. Create a picture or a visual representation for every goal you have - financial, career, recreation, new skills and abilities, things you want to purchase, and so on.

When we were writing the very first Chicken Soup for the Soul® book, we took a copy of the New York Times best seller list, scanned it into our computer, and using the same font as the newspaper, typed Chicken Soup for the Soul into the number one position in the "Paperback Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous" category. We printed several copies and hung them up around the office. Less than two years later, our book was the number one book in that category and stayed there for over a year!

Index Cards

We practice a similar discipline every day. We each have a list of about 30-40 goals we are currently working on. We write each goal on a 3x5 index card and keep those cards near our bed and take them with us when we travel. Each morning and each night we go through the stack of cards, one at a time, read the card, close our eyes, see the completion of that goal in its perfect desired state for about 15 seconds, open our eyes and repeat the process with the next card.

Use Affirmations to Support Your Visualization

An affirmation is a statement that evokes not only a picture, but the experience of already having what you want. Here's an example of an affirmation:

I am happily vacationing 2 months out of the year in a tropical paradise,
and working just four days a week owning my own business.

Repeating an affirmation several times a day keeps you focused on your goal, strengthens your motivation, and programs your subconscious by sending an order to your crew to do whatever it takes to make that goal happen.

Expect Results

Through writing down your goals, using the power of visualization and repeating your affirmations, you can achieve amazing results. Visualization and affirmations allow you to change your beliefs, assumptions, and opinions about the most important person in your life - YOU! They allow you to harness the 18 billion brain cells in your brain and get them all working in a singular and purposeful direction.

Your subconscious will become engaged in a process that transforms you forever. The process is invisible and doesn't take a long time. It just happens over time, as long as you put in the time to visualize and affirm, surround yourself with positive people, read uplifting books and listen to audio programs that flood your mind with positive, life-affirming messages.

Repeat your affirmations every morning and night for a month and they will become an automatic part of your thinking - they will become woven into the very fabric of your being.

© 2006 Jack Canfield
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Jack Canfield, America's Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your free success tips from Jack Canfield now at www.JackCanfield.com.

Follow Your A, B and C's By Denis Waitley

Begin each day with this question: "What am I going to do today that will make the best use of my time and energy, and lead me a step closer to reaching my goals?"

During the day, each time you are faced with a decision, ask yourself: "Does this action substantially help me toward achieving my goals?"

Before you leave your workplace or before you go to sleep at night, make a list of your most urgent priorities for the following day in order of their importance. You might consider dividing your activities into A, B, and C lists:

A is for action immediately
B is before the end of the day
C is can wait until tomorrow

Become aware of interruptions and distractions that block your success. Constant telephone calls are the most common. Spending too much time reading and answering personal e-mails is another problem. Chatting with co-workers eats up more time. Messy files, disorganized scheduling and cluttered desks are roadblocks.

Take an objective look at your routines and habits. And then take action!

Until next time, keep following your A, B and C's!

-- Denis Waitley
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Written by Denis Waitley. To receive Denis Waitley's Weekly Ezine click here now! Copyright (c) Denis Waitley International. All rights reserved worldwide.

Inevitable Success By Robin Sharma

A simple reminder: goals work. They may not be sexy but every great project, every great business and every great life was a result of audacious, disciplined goals.

And the thing about goals is that there is a balance. On the one hand they need to be ambitious enough to be inspiring. Yet, on the other hand they need to be realistic enough to be achievable. A great way to negotiate this balance is with small daily wins. Small daily wins are simple steps--1% changes--that you take everyday.

So, set audacious goals and then think about them in terms of small daily improvements. Can you be 1% healthier than the day before? 1% more productive at work? 1% more loving with your family? This may not seem like much at all but think about it--after 30 days of this your life will be 30% better. And 1% wins build on each other. By doing a little bit each day you prove to yourself that you are making progress and that makes the next step easier.

Additionally, by doing a little bit each day you create habits. And it's these daily success habits that will quickly set you apart from the crowd.

And finally, remember that you will slip up and miss the mark sometimes. When you are going after your biggest life you are bound to fail. That's okay. Pick yourself up, journal it and move on. This is an essential part of the journey. In fact, the more failures I experience the closer I know I'm getting to my vision.
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Robin S. Sharma, Professional Speaker on Leadership in Business/Life -- He is the bestselling Author of "Leadership Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari". Visit his website at RobinSharma.com.

Don't Be An Old Dog In The New Year By Stuart Rosen

Life is full of contradictions. As we get older, we’re supposed to be getting wiser. Wisdom means learning new things, and yet we buy into the old excuse that "you can’t teach an old dog new tricks." Well, my dear puppies, I’m here to tell you that you can.

Being that the New Year is on its way; and resolutions are flying everywhere, there’s no time like the present to learn.

Forget that you "can't" - That’s the only thing really holds us back; that we believe we can’t do something. Whether it’s situational ("the job takes up all my time"), relational (“the kids! the kids!”) or motivational ("I just don’t want to do that...") it all comes down to an excuse not to go after what we want. It seems easier not to do something now, but in the long run, it actually holds us back. Believing in “I can” is the first and most important step. The rest just becomes a matter of “how.”

Forget everything you know now - The more set in our ways we become, the harder it is to learn. That’s why children learn so much faster than us, because they’re more open to everything that comes in. We mustn’t let what-we-know get in the way of what-we-can-become.

Don’t fight contradictions - There are multiple sides to everything in Life… and we only see it from one angle at a time. The opposite angle can really look like it negates the first angle. That’s not true; both sides are true. It’s how we look at it that makes the difference. By being open to the fact that contradictions exist, we won’t get stuck on the narrow side.

Try it - Change happens by doing. We learn so much more by experiencing it first hand. Remember, we always have the option of not doing it again, or going back to our old way. Getting out of our comfort zone actually makes us stronger. Even if it’s only a tiny toe out into the bigger world, stick your toe out!

But wait, there’s more! It took a long time for us to get the way we are. There was also a lot of other things that helped support our old tricks. Doing something new won’t feel right, unless other things in our lives support them. Don’t just try one new thing; try all the stuff that goes with it too. That’s the only real way to make a new life for yourself in the new year.

Guru-cise it!

DON'T make a resolution...

Resolutions are just empty promises with built in escape clauses in February. Stay away from the generalized commitments like "going to the gym" or "eating right" but rather focus on a specific TASK or ACTIVITY that you want to add into your life. "Learn to ski" fits right into "getting more exercise" without being "exercise."It has a fun factor built into it, which makes it more likely to happen. It's easier to reach a task that a resolution, so this year focus on the thing itself!
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Stuart Rosen has been known as "Gurustu" since the last millenium. His chapter, "Power of Thanks" appears in volume one of "101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life". He has had a radio show in Los Angeles, a book of sayings ("Lil Words O'Wisdom"). Come watch videos or read any of his hundred articles and cartoons at his website, gurustu.com.