By: Lois Carrier
Setting New Year’s resolutions is a persistent ritual in America. The most common New Year’s resolutions include getting out of debt, spending less, budgeting, increasing savings, dieting, exercising or picking up new hobbies. Unfortunately, studies show approximately 80 percent of those who participate don’t follow through.
In spite of this statistic, many people faithfully set new goals every year hoping for success. Let me share with you a different approach I have found to work very effectively. It’s a goal-setting method used by many Olympic athletes – visualization.
Put simply, visualization is taking a goal and creating a short “movie” script of it in your head, like film writers do. Once written, your script has a high probability of achieving its goal. All that’s necessary is follow-through and repetition. Review your mental video script daily. Your subconscious mind will take over to make it happen.
It is a psychologically sound technique. The subconscious mind is indifferent to both the plausibility and the attractiveness of goals. There are no competing negative images of failure. Visualization accepts the power of the subconscious to work toward and manifest what it “sees”.
Let’s take improving your golf swing. Write down everything – in detail – describing the perfect swing: your approach to the tee box, setting the ball on the tee, the backswing, the downswing, the impact and ending with the path of your ball to is resting place. This is your script. Now, mentally review this video in your head daily with routine discipline. Your swing will become progressively like your script.
Visualization is deeply imbedded in my professional practice as a Fee-only Certified Financial Planner™ professional. Helping clients visualize the different areas of their personal journey gives us the ability to hone in on the aspects that are intimately their own.
I hope your curiosity has been piqued and you will read more about this powerful technique. Who knows, if you decide to give it a try, you just might achieve one or more of those resolutions you set for yourself. And having a little magic in this coming New Year may be just what we all need.
Have a great weekend and Happy 2021!