What Will Your Extraordinary Success Look Like 365 Days From Today?
The beginning of each new year typically brings contemplation of goals for the next 12 months. Resolutions are made, goals and intentions are set, yet these commitments often go by the wayside. Just think about how gyms typically reach capacity in January, then by March the crowds have dissipated… There is, however, a real path to ongoing forward movement, continuous cycles of achievement, increased fulfillment, and greater happiness.
Train Your Brain with Visualization
I’m a big believer in the power of visualization. Professional athletes routinely use this technique in preparation for games, races, and matches. They visualize their events, start to finish, over and over again as part of their training regimens. Several of my clients benefit from visualizations in different ways, from goal achievement to overcoming imposter syndrome, building confidence and executive presence. 95% of the population can visualize, so this might be a powerful tool for you.
- The same region of the brain is stimulated when an action is visualized as when that same action is performed, so we can train our brains.
Visualization is a technique that engages the reticular activating system (RAS)—a network of neurons in your brain that regulates behavioral arousal, consciousness, and motivation. The RAS doesn’t distinguish between images captured in real-life and visualized imagery. Rather, it melds conscious and subconscious minds, filtering for what is perceived to be important. For example, if you think of buying a red car and start noticing red cars everywhere, your mental picture of the red car was enough to bring red cars into view.
Two Types of Visualizations: Outcome Visualization and Process Visualization.
Outcome Visualization will be your mental imagery of what extraordinary success looks like on this date next year; and Process Visualization will be your vision of each step you took to get to your end goal. Visualizing an outcome is great, but without visualizing process that result is unlikely to be attained because your brain was trained to believe goals were already achieved.
Outcome Visualization
Find a quiet place where you can relax and envision yourself in the future, 365 days from today. Start with outcome visualization, focusing on your achievements. Note, success isn’t aligned solely to business. Your visualizations should encompass all aspects of your life to which you ascribe importance – career, health, relationships, hobbies…
- Visualize yourself one year from today, then capture detailed mental images for each of the experiences that made the last 365 days so incredible.
- Pause on each image, making sure to take note of what you’re seeing in your mind as if you were viewing a photo – the expression on your face, your clothing, who you’re with, details about the location, the color of the sky… Note other variables that might be sensed, such as the temperature of the air, sounds or music in the background, and the feeling you have inside.
Process Visualization
Now work backward from your visions to construct the paths and processes that helped you attain the success realized in your images. Visualize each step that led to your triumphs.
- Writing in past tense, be deliberate in writing the intentions that helped you attain your goals. Is there a word or words that capture your intentions?
- Still working in past tense, detail what you did to achieve your desired results. As you write, make certain to think through and account for obstacles you encountered along the way. Likely, there were some pivotal junctures at which you needed to allow for flexibility; and you had workarounds.
There is a body of research by Peter M. Gollwitzer, a psychology professor at NYU, that supports “Flexibly Tenacious Goal Striving With Implementation Intentions.” The crux of Professor Gollwitzer’s study is that allowing for ‘if, then scenarios’ make for greater likelihood of goal achievement.
Put Everything in Writing
- Visualizing your future state, one year from today, should have helped you get clear on your goals. Now, writing in your future present tense, record detailed accounts of everything in your visions as if they have already occurred. What were your big achievements and why were they important?
- Extract and memorialize a list of goals from your achievements. Goals should be specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time bound (SMART).
- What themes emerged in your visualizations? Set your intentions from the themes. Essentially, this is who and how you will be in support your goals. Intentions are lived and practiced daily; and they can support your goals.
A Letter to Yourself
Write a letter to your present self from your future self, the one in the visualizations. In the letter, tell yourself of today what happened over the course of the year and what you learned. Speak to how you achieved your extraordinary success, the paths and processes, the ups and downs, the highs and lows, the obstacles you overcame… What came up that you wouldn’t have anticipated?
Have fun memorializing the journey in your own words. You can even send the letter to yourself in an email. Gmail, iOS 13 and Outlook have scheduling functions; and futureme.org will let you send yourself the message anytime from six months to five years from now.
Have an Accountability Partner
Research on goal achievement by Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at Dominican University, showed “empirical evidence for the effectiveness of three coaching tools: accountability, commitment, and writing down one’s goals.” Having an accountability partner with weekly reporting can keep you on track to reach your goals.
Ongoing Practice
The techniques above should be practiced regularly for continuous cycles of progress and the best possible outcomes.
What will your extraordinary success look like 365 days from today? The decision is yours.
