Visualization is the basis of all conscious action we take in our lives. Many also hold the premise that it is also the basis of many of our unconscious actions. When you think about it, in order to accomplish anything in this world, we first have to think about what we are going to do and then decide how to do it. This is a process of first visualizing the result of our intention and then visualizing the actions we need to take to accomplish it. The final part of the process is to replicate the actions we visualized in the physical world. We are essentially creating a future event in our mind. If you really want a good understanding of how the mind approaches what you might consider a simple task, just ask a young child how they would do it. You will undoubtedly be amazed at both the complexity and detail in their answer. The interesting part about this concept is that by the time we are adults we are so accustom to the process for routine tasks that we normally wouldn’t even call it thinking.

Let’s take the example of fixing a meal. During the day you become hungry. You will visualize food items in your pantry. You visualize the actions needed to cook or prepare the items. Finally, you take those actions in the physical world approximating your vision as well as you can. It’s also interesting to note that you don’t always create your vision in the real world exactly as you saw it in your mind. The average person has both an imperfect memory and limited ability to perform the action envisioned. For example you might not have remembered exactly what was in your pantry or you may not have the skills to cook it in the way you visualized it.

Success experts agree that repeating a process many times improves the final result. This is an example of the age old adage “Practice makes perfect” But how does this really work? Visualization experts point out that the best way to accomplish our goals is to visualize the final outcome at least daily, preferably in a quiet, focused, meditative state of mind. This is effectively practicing to improve our ability to produce an accurate workable vision.

The next essential part is to practice the actions we envisioned in the real world. We have to try our vision and process in the physical world to see if it actually works. We can then learn what actually works for us and what doesn’t. This serves the very important function of providing practical feedback, that in turn, improves the accuracy of our visualizations. No matter how perfect you may believe you can visualize your goal, only action to produce it in the physical world will test its efficacy. Your vision may not (and likely will not) be workable on the first try. That is the main reason success experts agree that in order to succeed you must develop a tolerance for failure.

The trap many people fall into is that their life becomes too routine. You simply don’t think about this process at a conscious level. You may start to believe that you can only do certain things or accept a certain level of success. The practice of visualizing failure or the mundane is just as effective as visualizing perfection and success. In the classic sense, if you practice to fail you will improve your ability to fail just as easily as you can improve your ability to succeed. So since we do have the choice, what choice should you take? Personally, I’ll strive to visualize success.

If you would like to learn more about methods and tools for visualizing success, I recommend you watch this new video where Ryan Higgins of Mind Movies has a candid discussion with visualization master Bob Proctor. Click here to see the video.