Why Visualizing Success Is So Difficult

One of the pieces of advice you will get from every self-help guru, coach, counselor, adviser or well-intentioned friend is that you need to visualize your success. If you cannot see your goal being achieved in your mind, then you will never experience it in your reality. Visualization is a key principle in the law of attraction, manifesting your dreams and creating your own best reality.

But why is it so hard sometimes? Many of us can easily visualize what we fear, but when it comes to what we desire it is suddenly very hard to stay focused long enough to build that vision that is so real to us we can almost taste it.

I’m going to share with you what I believe to be the biggest reason why this is true for so many. Kids are pros when it comes to visualizing; they play pretend non-stop and it is a very real world to them. But as we get older, we learn how to be afraid. When I think back to when I was a kid I am horrified of the things I did. I was absolutely fearless. I crawled through hay bale tunnels and forts without pausing for a moment to wonder if there were spiders and mice waiting inside to bite me. The muddy creek was my swimming pool because I didn’t know and didn’t care about things like bacteria and parasites.

But as I grew up I stopped doing those things because I learned more about why I should fear them. Suddenly the idea that there was a black widow hiding in that bale of straw became much more real to me than the idea that it was a building block for my castle.

We learn fear and it cripples our imaginations. So we slowly stop using it.

I’m not saying that this is entirely bad; healthy fear keeps us from doing things like eating raw chicken or flashing a wad of cash in public. But when we let our fear take control, it completely chokes out our ability to  make believe.

This is why when we attend a workshop or seminar and the facilitator asks who would like to role play, there are crickets instead of volunteers. We have not only forgotten how to pretend, we have even grown to fear it. What if we say something dumb and the whole class laughs at us? The anxiety is just as real as working adults as when we were in school. The fear of looking stupid is stronger than what we may learn in the process.

How do we overcome this disability and free up our imaginations so that we can get to work creating powerful visualizations of our success?

I watch my son play pretend all day long. He makes pies out of poker chips and uses sticks as tools to “fix” his big wheel. Imagining comes easy to him because he does it all day long. The best way to get that skill back, is, unfortunately…practice. I know, no one wants to hear that! Don’t worry, we can make it fun!

We are faced with choices every day. An easy way to sharpen our skills of imagination and visualization is to “try on” each choice in our mind. Do we want hazelnut or vanilla syrup in our coffee? Close your eyes for just a moment and imagine what each choice will taste like. Try to taste the flavors on your tongue. Going out for dinner? Envision yourself in one restaurant, then the other. What does it look like? What smells are in the air? Is it hot or cold? Is the seat comfortable? It will just take a brief moment, but each time you do this it will contribute to your goal of visualization mastery. You will get better day by day and it will help you create much more vivid creations in your mind as you work toward your goals.

Let’s work together to become master visualizers. You will achieve your dreams faster, and just maybe look forward to the next time role playing is called for in a workshop!