4 ways to visualise your goals - and be successful

Visualisation is a powerful motivational tool used by therapists to help you achieve more in your life. A therapist can help you create a collection of mental images that encourage you to see a path to success by using all your senses to guide you to know what it feels like to be there.

Visualisation can be used to help you: 

• understand and reduce anxiety
• explore and resolve fears
• uncover areas of resistance
• understand complex problems
• build confidence
• understand yourself better

Understanding yourself is one of the most important steps and identifying what goals you truly want to achieve. Many people may find it difficult to find the time to sit down for a moment and focus.  Life intrudes, thoughts invade and emotions can overwhelm you when you attempt to do visualisation exercises alone.

To achieve much quicker, and easier, results, the steps in visualisation can be achieved with the help of a therapist talking you through the exercise. As a counsellor, I encourage my clients to relax with a simple breathing exercise first. By guiding a person to relax their muscles, the mind and emotions can quickly follow the visualisation guidance.

Four ways to visualise your goals

Here, I’ve listed four ways to visualise the goals you’ve always thought about but have been (for some reason or another) unable to get going.  So, set aside a little quiet time for yourself, and follow these examples to begin to live a more successful and happy life: 

1. Picture who you are (after you've achieved all your goals)

Imagine who you are as your best self. Be realistic. Imagine as many details as you can. For instance: 

• Where are you? 
• What are you doing? 
• How does it feel? 
• Does it look like what you want? 
• Are you happy to be there?

2. Craft a vision board

At its heart, any vision board you create is a collection of pictures or other things, that give you an idea of what you want/need/desire in the future. 

A vision board is basically about collecting images and other things and pinning them to a board that is hung in a prominent place where you can see it. The visuals you collect represent each one of your short and/or long-term goals. 

The fun thing about vision boards is that you can make them look however you want, as long as it represents a reminder to pursue your goals. 

3. Remember happy memories

Visualisation can be used to see the future - as well as the past. 

You can create a vision board to represent happy memories and moments of the past. It can act as a sort of source of motivation for you. Remembering any past happy memories, keeps you going. 

For example, if you are struggling to reach a particular goal, you can use the vision board to remember a time when you did achieve one - even if it’s not related to the current vision you want. 

The happiness you experience from this could give you the encouragement you need. 

4. Imagine yourself as your worst enemy - and your best friend 

What I mean by this is: put yourself in someone else's shoes. Imagine the obstacles, strengths, friends, or enemies that the person you imagine has. Think about the challenges that help or hinder their life. 

Then think about the message this could teach you. When you realise you may have it easier than others, you are more likely to keep a positive attitude and perspective to plough on towards your goals. 

Additionally, you can visualise what sort of advice you would give to your best friend or loved one - and possibly put that into action.

As you can see, visualisation is a technique that allows you to grab your goals and run with them. The act of visualising helps you to take action by persisting with them. Visualising your goals can also motivate you to get to the finish line. 

What a vision board encourages you to do is, to imagine what success would be like. When you do this, you’ll be more likely to fix on your goal and achieve it faster than if you hadn’t.