Mental Simulation for a productive year

I’m reading the book, “Made to Stick” by the brothers Chip and Dan Heath in order to enhance my presentations for 2010. But the information really applies to ANYONE with a business! There are many things to share as a result of this book, but today I’d like to discuss the power of visualizations.

As a coach, I embraced “The Secret” when it came out, and I’ve put much of what I learned from it into play with great success. And I totally believe in the law of attraction. Also, as a coach, I practice, myself, and encourage clients to practice, affirmations for what we want to create in our lives.

Today as I read about “mental simulation” in the Heath book, I was curious to see if I could duplicate what they discussed, so I put it into practice, with incredible success. I have to say that I’ll do it again, tomorrow, and I can see how this will become a habit to diligently practice for the future. I can see that with mental simulation, anything really IS possible! (Yea, you DO need the planning, but it’s included, as you’ll see.) It’s not that I’ve never done this, but I’m more of a ‘list’ person, myself.

So what is mental simulation and how is that different than affirmations or just positive thinking? And what makes me believe that this may have validity?

• First, what I like about the Heath book is that these two authors are educators and do have science to back up some of the things they discuss, this being one of them.
• In the chapter on Stories (yea, seems unrelated, but bear with me), they describe a study of UCLA students who were asked to think about something minor that was stressing them out. One group received a brief instruction on problem solving. A second group received instructions to simulate the event and retrace their specific steps that lead to the problem. The third group was told to simulate the event as if it was resolved. Which do you think was most effective? Grin: I’m not going to tell you, yet, but if you want to read more about this study, here is the link to the abstract; http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/25/12/1451 .
• Next in the chapter, the authors shared a review study of 35 studies of over 3,000 participants, where they practiced mental simulation. They found that mental simulation could provide up to 2/3rds the benefit of the actual activity. To read this study, go to this link; http://web.rollins.edu/~jdriskell/mentalpractice.pdf.

So, what’s the point? Let me tell you the story of what I did and how you can use this information to enhance your success:

Today, after reading this chapter, I decided to put this all into play. This isn’t anything REAL different, but, as I said,  I usually write down lists of things to do. There are times where they aren’t the most motivating or effective, however. So I closed the book, closed my eyes and asked myself what it was I wanted to accomplish the rest of the day. I walked myself through each task I wished to accomplish, seeing myself doing it. I even included a time-line, as there were things I wanted to do at a certain time.

The result? I was much more focused, I was on schedule for all my tasks, and I accomplished every single thing I had included in my visualization!

Oh, the result of the UCLA study was that the kids who simulated the event that caused the problem were much more successful at resolving their problem than those who simulated the event as if it was solved! So much for positive visualizations, huh? This doesn’t mean give them up, but it does put a new light on things.

So, close your eyes after reading this and walk yourself through what you’d like to accomplish. Imagine you’re really doing it and what might come up that could get in your way. I will warn you about one thing, however: Do not try to OVER-do your list of accomplishments! In fact, if you’re not sure about how this will all turn out, why not just pick a few items to work on? Start small!

As we head into a new year, imagine if you could accomplish all the things you have set up for yourself. But did you find yourself getting bogged down at all last year? I hear many people do. If you could improve your outcomes by performing one action, such as mental simulation, where you even visualize the roadblocks, imagine the successes you would enjoy in 2010! Wow, it’s going to be an amazing year!

Margie