Supporting Affirmation

A dilemma you may encounter in the process of using affirmation as a tool for developing personal leadership is the difficulty experienced in accepting an affirmation as a statement of reality when you know that it is not — as yet — true. At this point, the art of visualization enables you to move from the area of dreams into the light of reality. A large percentage of patterns of thought are geared to sight. The simplest thought usually calls forth an image. If someone mentions a tree, you will “see” a tree, but mention of an abstract concept, such as justice, requires your mind to grapple with the idea until somehow you reduce the abstraction to a mental picture. If you are unable to form a picture, you may be confused and fail to understand.

Visualization is used to the best advantage when you learn to use it in its highest form, that of relating the present to the future. When you can, through visualization, relate the “what is” to the “what can be,” you have developed visualization into a genuine art. Use the art of visualization to reinforce your positive affirmations and set your imagination free. Visualization proves that you can create anything you conceive You learn by the process of visualization to move the future into the present — to greatly expand your own experience. You have the jump on tomorrow. You are prepared for it because you are already familiar with it. You have “seen” it through visualization.

To see how visualization works with the power of affirmation to help you achieve your goals, look at an example. Suppose you have a goal to build your dream home — the home you have always wanted, that incorporates all of the features you would most enjoy sharing with your family. You support this goal with an affirmation: “I enjoy sharing my dream home with my family.” Through visualization, then, you take a mental picture of the goal you want to reach, for there is no way to reach a goal until you have a clearly defined mental image of it. If your visualization is hazy, the goal will be distorted when you reach it. It may be recognizable, but it is never completely satisfying. If your visualization is poor and your thinking is not crystallized, you cannot reach the goals you have set.

When you free your imagination, however, and visualize your goals with controlled attention and concentrated energy, you begin to see some startling results.

1. Visualization changes a general idea into something more specific.
2. Visualization enables you to see errors and incongruities in your plan and make corrections before mistakes become reality.
3. Concentrated visualization enables you to refine details.

The old saying, “Seeing is believing,” was never more appropriate than when it is related to affirmation and visualization. When you set goals, aims, and desires, affirm your belief in your ability to achieve, and exercise the art of visualization to picture yourself already in possession of those goals, you develop an almost miraculous belief in yourself and your ability to succeed.

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