Many of us have heard that one way to increase our chances of achieving a goal is to break it down into smaller ones. While this is something that I tell my clients, as it does help us feel less overwhelmed and provides more accountability for our long-term goal, it is not the only thing (or even the most important thing) we need to consider when thinking about the journey ahead. In addition to setting small process goals, we should be practicing visualization.
Visualization is the process of using our imagination to envision scenarios and make them feel as realistic and vivid as possible. The life we want often feels like an exciting but vague and distant concept. When we visualize our goals, we are able to get a taste of how it will feel to try and succeed. It makes aspirations feel less like pipe dreams and more like attainable reality.
I like to think of visualization as it applies to health and fitness as broken down into two parts. First, visualization helps prepare us by forcing us to envision specific challenges that we will face as we work to achieve a goal. If there is anything we can be absolutely certain on amidst the uncertainty of life, it is that we WILL face challenges! Oftentimes these obstacles throw us completely off-kilter. But what if before we ever even got started, we took the time to prepare for what those obstacles may be? And start visualizing how we would address them? Of course, life is unpredictable and we cannot foresee every little thing. But we would be lying to ourselves if we didn’t acknowledge our weaknesses and have somewhat of an idea on the areas we are most likely to fail in.
In addition to helping us prepare for difficulties, visualization helps us experience what it will feel like to attain a goal. This boosts our self-confidence and makes it easier to walk through those challenges, because we have been frequently imagining what life will be like if we do not give up. Questions to ask yourself to practice visualization in this manner include:
- When I achieve this goal, how will my life change?
- How will my day-to-day look different?
- How will this change the way I see myself?
- How does it feel to picture myself in this way?
Combining this positive, promising imagery of what achieving this goal will mean for you with the grounding imagery of identifying challenges is an excellent way to prime your mind for the road ahead. While in pursuit of our goals, we can continue to practice visualization as we learn more about ourselves and what we want in life.
