As you think, so shall you be
By Antarpreet Singh

SUCCESS, it’s said, is created twice. First, the image of success is formed in our mind. It is then followed by the actual product — success in physical terms. Charles Garfield, who did extensive research on peak performers in the USA, was able to demonstrate that people who hold strong mental images are the ones who eventually succeed in highly competitive situations. Garfield, a mathematician, while working with NASA astronauts, used to observe them going through a series of visualisation exercises while simulating space visits. Charles was so fascinated with the subject, that he took up a doctorate in psychology and intensively studied the factors which lead to peak performance. Charles’ subjects included famous athletes, space astronauts and top business executives. Charles eventually concluded that all peak performers are great dreamers — they visualise success before they actually experience it.

Effective visualisation is a key to our success and growth. If we could develop an ability to choose good thoughts and nourish them properly, there is no reason why we can’t be successful in life. All of our behaviour results from the thoughts that precede it. If our thoughts are purposive and powerful, we would behave in a manner that would channelise all our actions in a way that leads to the fulfilment of our goals — what we had thought of, in the first place. Dr Wayne Dyer, a celebrated author and a famous motivational speaker, in his best selling book You would see it, when you believe it, says that your circumstances do not determine what your life would be, they reveal what kind of images you have chosen until now. So it’s entirely up to us to create favourable circumstances for ourselves. For instance, if you are a student with a dream to do your MBA from the IIMs, you must hold a strong mental image of success — clearing the CAT and getting into the premier institute of the country. A strong image would drive all your actions --- like starting a systematic preparation, getting professional guidance, appearing in mock tests etc. So all your actions (behaviour) would result from your images and in the process you would create favourable circumstances for yourself. It’s not the circumstances that drive our actions, rather our actions (driven by the mental images) that shape up our circumstances. Most of the young people fail to achieve because they don’t have a powerful belief in their minds — they don’t visualise success. They wait for things to happen. It’s like saying to yourself. ‘I will believe it, when I see it’.

People fail to hold strong mental images in their minds because they use just one side of their brain — the left cerebrum hemisphere — which is predominantly logic driven and works like a fast computer. It processes information at great speed but has no creative ability to visualise. The right brain is artistic and specialises in visualisation. There are demands on this side of the brain only when we dream and visualise. We live in a left-brain dominated world which demands logic for everything we do. As a result, the left brain is overloaded and the right brain idles. The evidence of split brain theory comes from study of patients with severe brain damage and from recent hi-tech experiments in this field. This has aroused deep interest in not only physiological scientists and doctors but also in psychologists, behavioural scientists and human resource development professionals.

All of us are not destined to do great things in life but we can certainly do small things in a great manner by holding strong positive mental images in our mind through effective visualisation. A beautiful quote from Karen Ravn sums it all:

"Only as high as I reach, can I grow
Only as high as I seek, can I go
Only as deep as I look, can I see
Only as much as I dream, can I be".