The old saying goes: If you can dream it, you can do it.  I really think it’s true. When I was younger (age 49), I never really thought much about visualization.  I just figured you had a dream and if you were lucky, it came true.

Now, I believe that visualization is the most powerful way of achieving personal goals.  You have to have the idea, the picture in your mind, in order to meet your goals.

Do you know the story about Jim Carrey’s check to himself?  Carrey says that in 1987, he wrote a check to himself in the sum of $10 million. He dated it Thanksgiving 1995 and added the notation, “for acting services rendered.” He visualized it for years and in 1994, he received $10 million for his role in “Dumb and Dumber.”

I sometimes wonder about my mom.  She said for at least to years, that she was going to die at 59.  We said she was crazy.  But maybe she wasn’t.  Could she have visualized something so badly and unwitting caused her untimely death at 59?  I hate to think about it that way…

One of the most well-known studies on creative visualization in sports compared four groups of Olympic athletes in terms of their physical and mental training ratios:

• Group 1 received 100% physical training.
• Group 2 received 75% physical training and 25% mental training.
• Group 3 received 50% mental training and 50% physical training.
• Group 4 received 75% mental training with 25% physical training.

Of course, group 4 had the best performance results.  Today, most top athletes use the power of visualization to perform at their peak.  I see this with my daughter. She sees where she wants to go with her sport and I’m sure she’ll get there.

For almost the two years I was unhappy where I worked.  While I enjoyed the people, it wasn’t the right fit.   But, I waited for it to change because I didn’t want to make the change myself.  It wasn’t until I started to think about what I wanted the next place to look like and feel like, that I was able to get to my destination.

How about our personal lives? Our relationships with our spouse/partner and our kids?  Why don’t we visualize the kind of relationship we want with them?  Wouldn’t that allow us to have those great relationships rather than just wishing we had them? What about visualizing happiness or peace in our lives? Same thing, right?