Goal Setting & Visualizations
- In order to manifest your desires, first you must know what those desires are. Goal-setting is the process of doing just that. Setting goals is no more complicated than identifying what you want as clearly and concretely as you can. Most experts on goal-setting seem to agree that effectively set goals all share certain qualities that include specificity and detail, a set time frame for the goal's achievement and a measurable means of identifying when that goal is reached.
- Once you have set your goals, you can then start the process of visualizing them into reality. Clarifying those goals and fleshing them out with specifics makes it easier to visualize them vividly. Visualization is simply the act of envisioning the manifestation of your goals in the form of mental pictures. You can practice visualization anywhere, with eyes open or closed. There is no right or wrong way to do it; however, teachers of visualization encourage people to place themselves inside their own visualizations, seeing themselves achieving their goals.
- It is not enough to have a general idea of what you want in order to actually get what you want. You must know exactly what it is in order to call it forth. The more specific you are about the nature of your goals, the more closely their fruition will match your vision of them. Visualization both depends upon and promotes specificity. Visualization is a way to clarify your goals, to flesh them out and ultimately to see yourself as a part of them.
- Goal-setting and visualization can be easier if you put them down on paper. Writing down goals and drawing, painting or making collages of the visualizations they inspire help bring them out of the realm of the mind and into the material world of form before they have even manifested. You can also place those printed goals and images somewhere prominent where you will see them daily.
- The desire for your goals must be strong enough to keep you constant in your pursuit of them, including via visualization. Your goals must also be genuine desires of your own in order to fuel the visualizations with the necessary emotion. In other words, if you don't really want what you think you want, then when you visualize it you won't want to step inside that picture and make it a reality. If you set goals to fulfill other people's desires or expectations, those efforts are almost destined to backfire.
- Persistence is essential for effective goal-setting and visualization. As Shakti Gawain reminds her readers and students, every little bit helps, but the more the better. She advises practicing visualization at least some each day, preferably once in the morning upon waking, once in the middle of the day and once at night before bed. Sports psychologist Eva V. Monsma, Ph.D. tells her patients to repeatedly visualize themselves acting out the fulfillment of their goals the same way they would run a drill in practice, conditioning their mind to instruct their body to respond accordingly. As with any exercise or learning, repetition reinforces the goal and persistence fuels the visualizations.