As a mind reader, one of the commonest questions I get asked is about using visualisation to achieve our goals. Visualisation is touted to have the power to bring your dreams to your doorstep. There are many who testify to how this has helped them. Libraries have rows of books that talk about writing down your desires and visualising them into reality. So if it is working for everyone else, how is it that it does not seem to work for you?
The golden rule they forget to highlight
The most important secret to making all of this work is: Consistency. No matter what the obstacle, it takes complete dedication and commitment to making visualisation work for you. So after you write the goal, be absolutely sure to read it every night, until the goal is achieved. It is imperative that you do not stop mid way; I cannot emphasise this enough. Without you following through every single day, the universe will not conspire to make it happen.
My first experience with visualisation
I experienced the power of visualisation firsthand, when I was working as a young executive in a large multinational company. My son who was very young at the time, was admitted to the hospital for a week as a result of some infection. There he watched a programme on TV, featuring Disneyland and made me promise him that we would go to Orlando for the summer vacations. With my meagre salary at that time, it would have been impossible for me to fulfil his dream. But I promised him and visualised every night that I am with my son in Disneyland. A few months later, out of the blue, my boss walked up to me and said I was to be deputed to USA for a while—and could take my family with me. Suddenly, my dream became a reality. That was my first brush with visualisation.
Today, I take this exercise many steps further by making the audience in my show take some random decisions on the stage. Using visualisation, I predict who will come on the stage and the exact decisions they will make. It leaves the audience spellbound to witness visualisation materialise, right in front of their eyes.
Using visualisation for weight loss
Let us take a simple example and say we want to lose 10kg in the next two months. We write that down as a goal and keep it next to our pillow. Chances are we will read it every night for a couple of nights, stand on a weighing scale, and when we don’t see any real change, we will quit—that’s exactly the mistake that leads to the failure of the exercise.
Now let’s assume a second scenario. You write down your goal to lose weight and you read it every single night—and do not stop reading it for at least a week. What happens is, over the week you slowly began to internalise that goal. You slowly begin to eat better and exercise. Soon you see the result of your effort. All this backed by the positive reminder every night that you are going to lose weight.
And voila, in time, your visualisation helps you lose weight.
Visualisation for professional growth
Visualisation can be used for anything, from the pettiest to the most lofty goal. Want your income to increase or to receive a promotion at your workplace? Write out the goal and read it every day. Internalise it and slowly you begin to work harder and more efficiently, read more about your industry, reach out to influencers to learn from their experiences and so on. And in time, you begin to see the growth you want in the world around you.
Thought into words and words into actions leads to results
So after a show, when I tell people this, they usually walk away dejected. Took me a while to realise why. In the world where everything happens in the flick of a button, we are hoping visualisation would also work that way. Change, however, takes time. You have to keep visualizing without losing faith but you also have to work towards your goal.
Also, remember to set realistic timelines. But, most importantly don’t quit half way. It is a process and it will work for you, like it has for the millions who have benefited from it over the generations.