“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” Napoleon Hill.

I have been reading a fascinating book by a former Royal Marine and member of the Special Boat Service. It provides a great insight into the work of our Special Forces. It also helped me to better understand the resilience and mindset that members of Special Forces have to possess in order to do their work.

In the book, the author mentions how important visualisation has been to him throughout his life. He talks about how he believes in the power of it and its effectiveness in helping to achieve goals.

Visualisation is the act of creating compelling and vivid pictures in our mind. It activates the creative powers of our subconscious mind. It’s a practice used by many people from all walks of life to help them accomplish their goals. Many sports people use the technique as part of their training and preparation.

There is a part of the brain known as the reticular activating system (RAS) that plays a vital part in our ability to achieve goals. Our RAS is the automatic mechanism inside our brain that brings relevant information to our attention.

The RAS will help us spot opportunities that will move us towards our vision. It acts as a kind of filtering system between our conscious and subconscious minds. It takes instructions from our conscious mind and passes them on to our subconscious.

It focuses our brain to notice available resources that were always present but had previously gone unnoticed. On your next journey try it for yourself by looking out for yellow cars. These cars would have been on your journey but you may not have noticed them if you hadn’t made a point of consciously looking for them. You may be surprised by how many you spot!

Researchers have found that when you perform a task in life, our brain uses the same processes it would if you were merely visualising the task. Our brain sees no difference between visualising something and doing it. Our RAS can’t distinguish between ‘real events’ and ‘synthetic’ reality.

In other words, it tends to believe whatever messages we give it.

Visualisation actually magnetizes and attracts to us, the people, resources and opportunities that you need to achieve a goal. If you give it images of your dream house, your perfect partner, the career that you would like or the places you want to visit, it will provide ideas and solutions to help you achieve those dreams.

My favourite visualisation story is the story about Major James Nesmeth, originally featured in the book Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen:

Major Nesmeth had a dream of improving his golf game and he developed a unique method of achieving his goal. Until he devised this method, he was just your average weekend golfer, shooting in the mid- to low- nineties. Then, for seven years, he completely quit the game; he never touched a club and didn’t set foot on a golf course.

Ironically, it was during this seven-year break from the game that Major Nesmeth came up with his amazingly effective technique for improving his game – a technique we can all learn from. In fact, the first time he set foot on a golf course after his hiatus from the game, he shot an astonishing 74!

He had cut 20 strokes off his average without having swung a club in seven years and his physical condition had deteriorated. Major Nesmeth’s secret was visualisation as he spent those seven years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. During this time, he was imprisoned in a cage approximately four and one-half feet high and five feet long.

For the majority of time he was imprisoned, he saw no one, talked to no one and experienced no physical activity. During the first few months he did virtually nothing except hope and say prayers for his release. Then he realised he had to find some way to occupy his mind or he would lose his sanity and probably his life.

That’s when he learned to visualise.

Every day, he played a full 18 holes of golf and he experienced everything to the last detail including seeing himself dressed in his golfing clothes, the smell of the trees and grass. He imagined different weather conditions covering spring, summer, autumn and winter. He also felt the grip of the club in his hand.

It took him just as long in an imaginary time to play 18 holes as it would have taken in reality. He did this seven days a week, four hours a day, eighteen holes for seven years. He took twenty strokes off his game and shot a 74.

Reflection time

This week, why not pause for a few moments to reflect and consider what resources, people, ideas or information you would like your RAS to spot to help you achieve your personal and professional vision and goals.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk