"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it." quote by William Arthur Ward.
Photo by Daniil Kuželev on Unsplash
Do you sometimes doubt yourself and feel like you may never accomplish your dreams?
Did you know that your thoughts and beliefs are influenced by your subconscious mind? Also, the negative opinions of others and real-world obstacles have a negative effect on the ability to make useful decisions towards your goals. A negative environment can be the cause of you giving up completely on your dreams whereas if you had a supportive environment, you would have not given up so easily.
You may be surrounded by people who have tried achieving their dreams while failing, causing them to give up all together while pulling everyone else down with them. These are not the people you want to listen to. Unless your dream is completely unrealistic like expecting to win the lottery or becoming the King/Queen of England, you can very well accomplish your dream. Chances are you have a reasonable dream you want to accomplish like finishing college, starting a business, becoming an architect or obtaining a singing career. If your dream is realistic, then why not make it reality. Start looking to the people who have accomplished their dreams. Learn what it is that they did to get to where they are. If they were able to do it, why can’t you?
The skill most successful people have in common is the ability to constructively daydream. This is not just simply daydreaming, but the ability to control how you daydream. These are techniques that have been used by Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, Jim Carey and Albert Einstein to name a few.
For example, while Einstein was riding his bike he thought of, “Life is like riding a bike. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
Another example, Michael Jordon never made a basketball shot without mentally visualizing it first. He visualized the outcome over and over again in his mind which gave him the confidence and mental focus to make the shot in real life.
Program your subconscious mind to boost your chances of success.
The key is to program your mind in a way that gives you greater chances of succeeding. This is done by visualizing what you want your mind to focus on. The more you visualize what it is you want, the more your subconscious mind deems this information as important and stores it as valuable information. The biology behind this process is the (RAS) reticular activating system. This is the part of the brain that sorts out information from our senses and stores only information it determines important to our subconscious mind. Without the RAS, our brains would be overwhelmed with data that would be unnecessary for our survival.
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How to constructively daydream.
To constructively daydream, unlike simply daydreaming of the moment you become instantly successful, visualize the entire process of becoming successful from start to finish. This includes imagining all the obstacles you will likely encounter. Think of all the different creative solutions to problems you come up with. This will challenge your critical thinking skills and make you a better problem solver. You don’t have to worry about failure because you can start over again. You have the power to explore different avenues. In this world, the world really is at your feet. So, explore it! Visualize with great detail what would likely happen in any given situation. Be realistic with your imagination. Remember, to see creatively is to see from all points of views.
Repetition of daydreaming causes you to become more confident, goal driven, and creative. By visualizing your dream over and over again in your mind’s eye, the challenges you face in real life become Déjà vu, a French word that means something familiar in a sense that you feel as if you been here before. This is because the human mind can’t tell the difference between a past memory or a vividly imagined future, (your constructed memories through daydreaming.) There are countless scientific studies that back this up.
The more vivid and real you can make your imagination, the more effective it will be. Every person is capable of practicing these techniques. You can only get better at it with time. Repetition is key. When visualizing, see with great vivid images and color. To alter your vision, make use of all five senses by imagining sounds, smells, tastes and the sense of touch. Using all five senses heightens the mental experience and creates a memorable experience as if it happened in real life. You only need to visualize for 15 to 20 minutes a day, for as long as it takes until you accomplish your dream.
How constructive daydreaming actually works psychologically.
By repeating your daydream over and over again, your mind actually believes it has accomplished this goal already. By the time you face real world obstacles, a sense of Déjà vu comes over you. You have come up with all kinds of creative solutions and know what to do in any given situation. You have imagined exactly what to do with great confidence. This is because you have trained your mind to think positively. At the same time, it is all familiar to you, and you will naturally have more confidence at things you are familiar with.
Since your mind believes it has accomplished the goal already, you will naturally want to line up reality with what you envisioned. Here is how the psychology of the mind works regarding actions. Actions are influenced by the subconscious mind. By repetitively daydreaming of certain actions you will take toward a goal and accomplishing them mentally, you are motivating yourself to achieve it in real life. You will want what you see and be impowered to make that dream a reality.