Visualisation and Mission Statement

                                                   Michael Phelps, just hangin around.

Recently I had the pleasure to read to very life altering books namely “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey and “No Limits” by Michael Philips.

Both beauties mentioned a very beautiful life altering phenomena, Visualisation. This is a phenomenon you may or may not have read about but might have experienced unintentionally. You may recall a session where the speaker might have requested you to close your eyes and imagine something good, it could be any experience, dream, etc or you for sure would have imagined anything at least once during your life.

How did it feel? How often do you do it?

This visualisation which the speaker might have used is a very powerful tool. This is a tool which many great athletes like Michael Phelps use before and while practicing for their performances. Great business leaders, entrepreneurs, businessmen have used this tool to raise entire empires out of this technique. Here comes the role of a personal mission statement as when you consider visualisation, the first question that arises is the purpose of your visualisation.

A personal mission statement and proper goal setting along with dedication, diligence and perseverance has helped Michael Phelps immensely in his career as an Olympic legend. This man though ordinary by birth with the help of all these measures now holds 7 world records in swimming. He mentioned that he was taught the power of Goal Setting by his coach Bob during his early years of swimming. He lived by his goals and his mission statement which he very carefully crafted as the words of your personal mission statement can alter your life for good and for bad too.

After proper goal setting comes the part of Visualisation.

Michael mentioned that even in as a kid he was able to visualise his whole swim even before entering the pool. He can very vividly imagine his swim, his strokes, how he might feel, how his body moved, the temperature, the pressure, the competitive pressure, everything. This way he had already swam twice in the same time when we take our first dive because it is as emotional as it is physical. By stimulating the conditions again and again, just like any other muscle you get this muscle stronger over time.

Many great leaders and businessman who laid foundations of great empires had a certain vision in their mind whilst starting (in our case it’s our goals and personal mission statement) and these visionaries envisioned their visions repeatedly. They wrote it down, felt it in themselves, visioned it over and over again until it became reality (just like reality distortion vision and Steve jobs) for them.

We too can incorporate this tool/technique in our lives and visualise as much as possible for situations we want to perform best in or to execute our vision in our daily life. Imagine you have a very tough exam coming up:

What you can control is your actions? So, sit down and relax. Take a deep breath. Let it out. Repeat this until you feel relaxed. Now visualise yourself preparing for that exam. Imagine yourself devoting intense study sessions to your purpose. Imagine yourself sitting on your chair practicing your craft. Visualise yourself going to the exam hall. Everything is fine and you have sat down for the exam. Take a look at the paper in your visualisation , you can get most of the questions, you might feel unsure about a question here and there but you are fine. You hard work is paying off and you are all set to perform. You are doing it with all your might. You have completed your exam and you feel great about it.

Visualise this again and again everyday at any fixed time to set a routine and see yourself perform in that exam. Your results are sure to surprise you. This is what I suggested my younger sibling to do and she has already proved this theory correct and it gets so powerful over time that you will soon find your life wrapped around your purpose your mission statement.

I hope this blog triggers your conscious and leads you to reading more about these topics and some great books mentioned here.