Visions

I'm going to borrow this one from one of my favourite authors, Robin Sharma. You can find this content in his books and some of his podcasts.

How do you achieve your dreams? Well, as Sharma advises, first, have a vision of this dream. Second, take this vision and break it down into goals - 10 yr goals, 5 year goals, 1 year goals, 30 day goals. Third, go figure out what resources you will need to get you there. Fourth, take some daily action - ask yourself at the beginning of every day, what action would I have to take today to get myself one step closer to that goal.

In this chapter, I am going to talk about the first step, having a vision.

The three major things that we can run in our brain - Pictures (Visual), Sounds (Auditory) or Feelings (Kinesthetic). These are either internally or externally generated.

Find time, preferably by yourself in a quiet space (or your favourite spot where most of your brilliant ideas get generated) and sit there and visualise the goal. Sounds kinda 'duh' but it's true.

I didn't really get this point till I had some time off in March this year. I went to an offshore island by myself with supplies which would last me about a day. I brought my sleeping bag, water, a tent, food and a change of clothes (that I didn't have the chance to use!) and a book - Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. While the book was great, it wasn't the turning point. The turning point came from those hours of being alone and having the space, time and quiet to think. No interruptions, no mobile phone, no email. Just a comfortable spot, a canteen mug of coffee and my thoughts. I did more good to myself in that one day that I have done in the past few months.

I wouldn't really advise having to go live in the wilderness for a day to generate a vision for the future. A quiet room, scented candles, soft music, whatever gets those brain juices going.

When you are in that 'zone', first picture what things would look like should you achieve your goal - Visual Internal. Your vision might be inspired from a previous experience where you won something or was wildly successful. What did you see, what did you look like? Or it might be gathered from other sources that you've seen, like on TV or watched when you were young and at school assembly when a schoolmate gave a wild performance and got a standing ovation. Picture what it looked like.

What do you think you would hear when you finally achieve that goal you've set for yourself? Cheers, shouts, your name mentioned in a stadium, fans going wild, praises from your mom? Those Auditory Internal stimuli add to your Visual Internal stimuli to make a richer vision of your goal. Throw in something else, Auditory Digital. Auditory Digital stimuli are things you tell yourself, the conversation you have with yourself everyday in your brain. Now what sort of conversation would you be having with yourself when you finally achieve that goal? Would it be,"Hey Bill, you've finally made it!" or would it be,"Now I've arrived!" or would it be,"It's just the beginning, watch out, cos I'm coming!"

Now you've added about 3 stimuli to your vision - an actual Visual picture in your brain (hopefully not a still picture but a blockbuster movie, in HD colour!), an Auditory Internal stimulus consisting of the sounds you would hear (surround sound in this movie!) and an Auditory Digital voiceover, the sort of stuff you would be telling yourself once you've reached that goal. (this movie has a narrator as well!)

Add a fourth, add a Kinesthetic Internal stimulus, add an emotion. The best movies bring out emotions. If you don't believe me, check out this ad. It made me view the company different because whenever I saw their sign at a petrol pump, I just had a different emotion than before! Wild!

Now put yourself in a zone where you can feel that elation, feel that joy you have brought to yourself, feel that special feeling when your success brings immense joy to other people. What other feelings would you get when you reach that goal? Your heart beats wilder, your blood pumps faster, your hair is on end. Feel it.

So there we have it, taking a simple goal and taking it to the next step of an extraordinarily powerful vision. Better than the best Oscar winning movie that brought you to tears, one that was a full HD colour movie, with surround sound, excellent narration and direction that make you feel like you were in it, and it was done.