Why You Need to Imagine, and How to Imagine It

As humans, we love familiar territory. We're afraid of the unknown. If you imagine something then, it's easier for you to achieve it. I was reading personal development guru Steve Pavlina's blog, and noticed a great method to imagine anything you want: Imagine you're sitting in a movie theatre, and you're watching whatever it is you want to imagine. This gets more of your senses working, helping you imagine a little better. Here's how Steve imagines his upcoming day:

I imagine sitting in a movie theater watching the movie of my day on the big screen. The movie plays on autopilot (controlled by my subconscious) and I use my conscious mind to observe, react to, and notice my reactions to what appears on the screen. It's a lot like being in a real movie theater, where you might feel some emotion during an emotional scene, and then you have this meta-observation that you're noticing yourself feeling emotional while watching a movie. If this sounds too complicated to do all at once (again, it takes some practice), then just play the movie normally, and when it's over, try to recall how certain parts made you feel.

But how do you make your movie come to life? By using your senses of course:

Now you have your visualization of your next day as well as the feelings that you attach to various parts of it. Those feelings are your feedback, so use this feedback to improve your movie. Did you feel stress, worry, or anxiety at times? If so, go back and modify the script. Mentally modify those parts of the movie to remove the negative emotional triggers. Add soft music to reduce stress. Eat healthier food. Squeeze in a nice long walk. Do a complete rewrite if you have to -- remember, your day hasn't even started yet, so fix the bugs now before they go into the production build.

Keep on tweaking your movie until it's Academy-Award-worthy:

Secondly, notice which parts of your movie produced a positive emotional response, and see if you can make those even better. Use what you learn from observing your positive emotional reactions to improve the weaker parts of your film. Keep working on your original B-movie until you have an Oscar winner on your hands. Finally, be sure to end your film with an appropriate version of "riding off into the sunset." Make your day end well, and picture yourself feeling good about it. Clarify the feeling you want to have at the end of your day -- accomplishment, peace, victory, etc., and create a final closing scene that captures it. It could be something as simple as picturing yourself going to bed with a smile on your face. When you have a movie you really love, say to yourself, "save program." You're done.

If you're seeking business success in a certain industry, using Steve's approach to imagination to build your "movie" will certainly get you one step (make that five steps) closer.

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