When you plan things, when you set goals, what do you focus on first – how difficult it will be and what obstacles you will have to overcome, the process itself or the final result?
As I like to write through personal experience, I would like to share one more reflection this time. Last week I took on quite a challenge – to return from Lithuania to France by car, alone, for a total of just over 2000 km. I had never done it alone before, and my family and friends were wondering – wow, you are not looking for a passenger after all?
I went to Lithuania for one month and it was strange how I, being such a planner and a thinker of a thousand scenarios ahead, had not thought too much about how I would have to cover such a long distance ahead of me. All this time I was saying to myself, “The time will come and then I will think about it”. I must be growing up 🙂
In the last days before departure, there was of course some anxiety, but I told myself that instead of thinking about what might not go according to plan, about how hard it would be and how tired I would be, I should focus on the end result – how I would feel after covering the distance, how I would enjoy the process, how fast the time would go and how pleasant it would be. The 21 hours of driving is just an intermediate process that leads to the final result. Throughout the journey, I had an image in my mind of how good it would be to come back, how I would be able to congratulate myself for having taken on the challenge.
In this whole process, I realised something else – I use visualisation quite often in my life without even realising it. When I first started my professional career, I used to dream about what kind of job I would like, what kind of position would be ideal for me, and a few years later, when I was already working in such a job, I realised that I had achieved basically what I had once visualised.
When we visualise our goals, when we think about what we will be like, how we will feel and the result we will get when we achieve them, it increases our motivation to achieve them. By visualising and empathising with the outcome, we are programming ourselves to focus on the good things that lie ahead, instead of the difficulties we will have to overcome along the way. When we see the end result, the process is no longer so difficult and insurmountable.
There are different ways to use visualisation – for some it is enough to see the image in the mind, for others it is most helpful to write it down, and for others it is a visualisation board. Henry Ford once said “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.” So if you choose the first option and decide that you can, I invite you to use visualisation. It is a really powerful tool to help us achieve our goals and to channel our energy into positive change and anticipation of the outcome, instead of wasted energy worrying about things that may never happen in the process.
Coaching can be a great help when exploring possibilities of visualisation. Curious how? I invite you for a 30 min free meeting to discuss. Book your time here.
You can read more about Augam coaching services here: https://augam.fr/en/coaching-2/
See you soon!
With best wishes to grow,
Dovilė