In a previous post, you may recall, I wrote about the four mental laws and how they impact the results we get in our business and personal lives. The common thread among all the laws was that the results we get are tied to our thoughts and beliefs. If we think in a certain way our actions will follow those thought patterns and the results will turn out accordingly. Consider this. What do visualize when I say “salesperson?” Do you have the image of a sleazy person who will do anything for a commission?  How about when I say “customer?” What do you imagine?  Someone who is very demanding, always wanting to get something for nothing?  What about “employees?” Do you think that good ones are impossible to find? And they never do what you want them to do anyway? If you think in these negative terms it is no wonder you don’t do well in your sales calls, can’t attract the right customers and can’t seem to find good people. 

Get the picture?? Actually the pun was intended. You see, we all think in images. And we visualize ourselves in certain situations and then act accordingly. There is a quote from Earl Nightingale that goes “human beings become whatever it is they visualize themselves to be.”  Why do you think that is? People see themselves in a certain way and they think about the way they see themselves all day long. There have been tests conducted, particularly related to sports, that leverage the practice of visualization. There have been basketball players who have been taught to shoot foul shots. Some just practiced more foul shots. Others just visualized making foul shots while not actually shooting the ball. The third group did both. The results were that the ones that practiced improved about 24 percent, the ones that only visualized without practice improved about the same, but the ones that did both nearly doubled the improvement rate. Jack Nicholas in his book “Golf My Way” talks extensively about visualization. Don’t think about the water, don’t think about the sand trap, think only about where you want to land the ball on the green. 

So, we get results based on what we think about all day long. The question is what do you visualize about yourself, your business, the people around you all day long and every single day?  Now, you can’t just walk around and say to yourself, “I’m going to do great things and all those around me are fantastic.” That’s not necessarily the way it works. You truly have to understand how you think. Of course you think in pictures and images. And those images are stored exactly the same as if we experienced them. And as we grow up, as young people, we are trained in many ways how to see ourselves. Has anyone ever told you “you have never been good at math.” Or “you don’t seem to have the aptitude for that sport.” Or you raise your hand in class only to have the wrong answer to the teacher’s question. How comfortable were you in raising your hand when the next question was asked? You probably weren’t as willing to take the risk that you might have the wrong answer yet again. All of these things form an image of ourselves. And therefore you have to ask yourself what kind of images do you have?  Which ones might be holding you back? Are you taking necessary risks in life and in business? If not why not? Are you thinking outside the box?

So let’s imagine. You are in business and you are working with a prospect. Here’s the picture in your head . . . ”Things aren’t going to work out.” You tell yourself, “this person is just using me, they will probably never buy from me, they really don’t care about me or my business, all they want is the lowest price and nothing more.” What happens is you start acting out on those images. And as you can predict, the likelihood of success will be very limited in this situation. When you start thinking things will get worse you will start acting out on those images and start looking for signs of things getting worse. 

It all depends on how you see things and imagine yourself in those situations. The power is in visualizing positive results and positive images of your actions. Stop blaming others. You have the power to make choices. Make the right ones and act accordingly and you will avoid seeing obstacles and avoid blaming others for not getting results. You will begin to see opportunities and act on those opportunities in order to create the results you have visualized. Try it, it works!