One of the areas I often excel at is visualizing future action (and sometimes things outside of myself) and bringing it to reality. My 3 best examples are as follows. First, in 2012 Ballys Total Fitness had sold closing my nearest location and I'd soon lose access to my favorite piece of equipment; SportsArt overhead press. The handles and seat back were shaped to perfectly match the body, the press went at an arch; I was very strong in this machine. When I wanted to lift more, I'd visualize it. When the gym was closing soon, I visualized myself lifting the whole stack; by the last workout I did 4 sets of 12 reps with the entire stack of 220lbs.
The second great visualization story is from when I was taking a golf class, we spent the whole semester on the range (we were allowed to request tee times, I don't know if anyone did; it was a very generous deal arranged by a great golf teacher who also worked at a resort who was generous to him. At the end of the semester, we did a course walk through and a scramble for the final exam. During the walk through, from the closer tee; someone got on the green in 1 shot and we thought it might be a hole in one (almost, but didn't happen.) I visualized that hole for the week, and then the day of the scramble came (a scramble is when the players all play their second stroke from the best lay of all the players, cuts down on time for inexperienced players.) We went to that hole and from the further tee, I got it a foot from the hole in 1 stroke; I was the only player (including the teacher, whose ball rolled off the green) to do so and everyone was shocked as I'm generally not a good golfer.
The other great memory of success with visualization was in 2009, I auditioned for American Idol. I went hoping to meet a nice girl, however most women were from other regions. I saw that one booth almost never gave passes and another booth gave passes often, so I wanted the later. I pictured myself singing and the man in the yellow shirt giving me a pass to the next round. When my section was called, I wasn't put in front of him. I had about 10 seconds to picture the judge I got loving my performance and did so. When it was my turn, she was enjoying it (the male judge was indifferent.) She didn't have any passes, she went and got the man in the yellow shirt! He heard my song, asked for another and gave me the go ahead. Two weeks later was round 2, the person next to me said the 2nd round judge didn't like him; so I pictured her absolutely loving me. Then Ken Warwick came and did a talk for the room (something like 50-100+ people of probably 100-200 that got to round 2, as it was a 2 day event that he was doing) and I didn't know how to visualize him. I had no info on him other than generic observations, so I freeballed it. Every time I tried, I pictured him making fun of my name, my job and at the time I had a pompadour and sang similar to Elvis; in my mind he made fun of that as well. Round 2 came and went just as I hoped, the girl behind me was amazing and they didn't like her (said she was overdoing it) but loved me. Finally, my Round 3 audition with Ken Warwick was up. The next round would be the celebrity judges if I got through, that's Simon, Randy, Paula and I think they had a celeb judge; might have been an actress but I forget. He made fun of my name, and my job; then the audition began. I sang 'Tiger' by Fabian, after that he asked for 'Heartbreaker' (the mandatory song, not really my style; but I did my best.) He then proceded to make Elvis jokes at my expense, I was done at round 3. I decided to take the experiment further, I visualized him calling me and saying there was a mistake and inviting me back. I knew it was laughable; but I gave it a shot. That season, they showed a phone call on TV of him with a contestant kicked off by the judges before TV voting began; it went for that guy the exact way I visualized it going for me; the phrasing and even the way his office looked. Flash forward, today I don't want fame like American Idol would bring if one wins it; so it's for the best.
Visualization can be used for sports/fitness (seeing a good golf result, seeing yourself lift a heavier weight than normal; etc), personal life (seeing a girl you like enthusiastically agreeing to go out with you, seeing you two going out and having a good date; or even just seeing yourself having great friends around), business success (seeing yourself closing deals, getting investors, making sales); it tends to revolve around something with you rather than random chance (I only got the pass from the man in the yellow shirt because my audition went so well, my visualization didn't put me in front of him without it.)
It still requires action, you're unlikely to have success visualizing someone you've never met or spoken to handing you a lottery check; you have a better shot seeing yourself doing what needs to be done, then doing it, and getting the goal that you also saw in the beginning.
1.Remember your best moments, if it's direct that's better; but if your only success is learning a new language and you're trying to raise a million dollars for a startup you might visualize it like this: "I came to this country not knowing anyone and not knowing the language, in just a few months I could speak passable English and was making friends; now I speak pretty good English and have lots of friends. If I can learn a new language and meet new people, I can meet investors and communicate to them why my business is one they want to invest in."
2. When you visualize something you want, how does it make you feel? If you visualize it and it seems impossible or doesn't make you unhappy, correct that before going back to visualizing it. That may mean seeing yourself smiling about achieving that goal, or understanding why you're not happy and correcting it. If you want a million dollars and try to visualize it but only see yourself unhappy with a massive tax bill, then either see higher taxes as a milestone of having more than ever or seek tax saving opportunities that will lower those taxes while still representing a large windfall that you seek.
3. Some of your best ideas will come when next to water, either swimming, bathing, shower, washing dishes; I'm not sure why.
4. Breathe life into your visualization, follow visualization with deep breathing while still visualizing; then go and do the actions needed to accomplish your goal.
More tips to come.