Visualisation and Your Home Business
by Roy Thomsitt
Published on this site: May 11th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
My first experience of using visualisation successfully was when
I was employed. It was not something I had read much about, nor
consciously practised. It happened quite by chance, and it was only
many years later that I realised what had happened.
I was on a week long management training course, surrounded by
some very bright, mostly younger, sparks. On about the third day,we
were given an exercise to do. It was an individual exercise; each
one of us had to think about, and then write down, what would be
our perfect day in 5 years’ time.
What all this had to do with management training I was not sure.
In fact, I’m still not sure to this day. But, it was something
I was quite happy to do. I have a strong imagination, and this was
an “easy” exercise to do. We had an hour, so no rush;
I just let my mind flow. It was quiet, as everyone else was doing
the same.
I sketched out honestly my perfect day. I was living near the sea,
and had control over my own life. I was not employed, I was self
employed. Goodbye career; that was not given one second of the perfect
day. It was quite a relaxing sort of day, but I was working at home.
I stopped when I wanted and strolled around for some exercise and
air. My beloved sea was always in sight.
What shocked me about that exercise was when I read back what I
had written, it bore no resemblance to my life at the time I did
the exercise. My life 5 years ahead, on my perfect day, was transformed.
It was only some time after what I wrote down became a reality,
some 5 years later, that I realized the possible significance of
that exercise. In that short time of concentration, had I given
enough instruction to my subconscious to ensure that I would go
on and achieve that perfect day? I cannot know for sure, but I have
no need to. It is enough that it happened.
By all means, try that exercise for yourself. Give your mind the
freedom, and do not allow anyone else to read what you have written.
If you believe that what happened to me then was not pure chance,
and you have a home business you want to succeed in, why not apply
similar visualization techniques to your business? There is no need
to follow a specific formula, you can adapt to your own needs. Try
the following:
- Find a quiet place and time to think in broad terms about
how you would want your business to turn out. Once you have
a clear vision, write it down. Visualise it as you write
it down. See yourself as you would hope to be when the business
is a big success.
- Think of the major barriers to your success, and write
them down. Then, for each of those barriers, visualize how
you would ideally break down those barriers.
- Think of the new skills you need to acquire to aid your
success. Write them down, and visualise yourself as being
in command of those skills.
Once you have completed your list, hopefully you will have 6 –
8 items. Now read through again, and rewrite them until they are
worded as positive statements. Uncertainties, like “I may”,
should be avoided. For example, instead of “I may be good at
using a word processor” write “I am good at using a word
processor.” There is a certainty about that, which you want
your mind to get used to.
When you are happy with your list, get into a routine of going
through it very day. Early morning, lunch time, and evening before
bed, are good times. Read the list to yourself, visualise for each
item one at a time, and repeat up to ten times, more if you have
the time. Concentrate as hard as you can with the visualization,
it is like you are drilling deeper into your subconscious.
Since I moved to Palawan in the Philippines, I have come to think
of visualisation like going for a walk in the jungle. If it is unfamiliar
territory to you, somebody will usually walk ahead, hacking down
any obstructive plants and tree branches. They are clearing the
way to make it easy for you. If you do that every day, the path
becomes well trodden, and you can just stroll through with ease
without anyone clearing the path ahead for you.
Visualisation can be used to clear the path to the future you desire,
and any detailed aspects of that future. Each time you practice
the visualisation as I have described above, you are making it that
much easier for yourself to walk that path in the future.
Roy Thomsitt is owner and author of: http://www.change-direction.com
and owner and part author of: http://www.routes-to-self-improvement.com
|
