The power of visualization

The Power of Visualization

Professional athletes and other highly successful people use the power of visualization technique on a regular basis. Why? Results of a 20-year study of the effects of visualization on results revealed an amazing discovery. Humans see pictures on the screen of the mind when thoughts are being processed; i.e. when they think of things.
For example, if a person, let’s say, George Right, stopped doing what he was doing right now, closed his eyes and thought of his car. What would he see? Is it the word CAR that pops up on the screen of his mind or a visual image?

Mentally, here's what is actually happening...

George is accessing a memory from his mind that was instilled while he was first learning what a "car" is. Then specifically, his present car popped up. He didn't always know it was called a car.

Similarly, other humans associate names with images or other forms of stimuli as a way to refer back to them in the mind. And here's an example of why this simple talent is so important.
Let’s go back to George for a moment. When he goes to find his car after he’s been at a shopping mall, all he is focusing on is finding the image that he has inside his head for his car. He quickly scans the parking lot and with lightning speed eliminates all other cars until he finds the familiar one that he is focused on.

With this example in mind, here is a behind-the-scenes look at how to use visualization to achieve any goal.
· Visualize an outcome you want over and over again to build 'cells of recognition' in your memory bank, just like you may have had with a car or other learned object when you were younger. This serves in the following two ways.
· First: you become consciously and acutely aware of everything that can help you achieve the visualized outcome that you desire. (Just like looking for a car). You quickly scan over anything that is not in tune with that image.

When you continuously focus on an image in your mind, every cell in your body is involved in that image and you vibrate and resonate with everything that is in harmony with that frequency both on a physical and non-physical level. This frequency moves you towards, and moves everything that is needed towards you, for the manifestation of the desired image.

· Second: you impress an idea into the subconscious part of you, it eventually becomes 'fixed' and you automatically attract and move towards that which you desire.
The reason athletes practice visualization is because they want to condition their mind in such a way that the body automatically behaves the way they want it to without effort. It is the only way to become 'unconsciously competent'.
The same is true for highly successful people. If they visualize the success they want over and over again, eventually their bodies will automatically do whatever it must to make the image a physical reality.

The outside world is a mirror image of the inside and hidden mental world. Unfortunately, very few people have really taken the time to learn this side of their personality. And that is unfortunate because this is the part that is so powerful.
To visualize is to direct unseen energy into an orderly vibration and that is what is needed to manifest desires of the inner self. Desires must first be created in thoughts and then they are created in ' real life'. Humans are the sum what they think about and focus on most.

~ John Assaraf, aka The Street Kid
New York Times & Wall Street Journal
Best-Selling Author, Trainer & Entrepreneur
http://www.TheStreetKid.com

 

The influence of world level athletes on children

We are a few weeks away from the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. I love the Olympics. I love the happening that it creates. Sports bring people together and the Olympics are the summon of those reunions. Who would thought, a few years ago that Afghanistan would have an Olympic team? Who would thought that Iran women would compete in the Olympics?

What is noticeable about the Olympics is the influence that these athletes have on children. Every Olympic year, sports organizations see an increase in their membership. It is even bigger if a local athlete wins a medal or if a sport gets a dramatic or a spectacular victory from an "underdog" athlete.

But it can also affect your membership in a bad way if your sport is caught in some cheating, judges corruption, or positive testing for performance enhancing drugs. But worse of all, because they are role models to our kids, athletes become a bad influence when they are caught.

I will not make the trial here of who's clean and who's not. This is not the purpose of this article. The purpose of this article is to warn you about the influence that top level athletes have on our kids.

Call me a unrealistic daydreamer but I still believe that most of the athletes, even top level athletes are clean. However when we hear stories like most recently about Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones, it sure looks bad. It puts doubt in others performances. And it sure sends the message to our kids that without drugs you won't make it to the top.

Kids are under pressure from their peers, their parents and their coaches to excel. When they have done everything their body could do naturally and it is not enough... they turn to performance enhancing drugs.
And it starts very innocently because a lot of steroids are available over-the-counter as dietary supplements. Like androstine which was popularized by Mark Maguire. When he broke the home runs record and admit he was using androstine, sales quadrupled that year. Scary? You bet. Same thing with creatine which is an amino acid that is unregulated. We don't know the long-term effects, especially on kids. There are potential problems with kidneys and with electrolytes.

Recent studies in the US indicate that anabolic steroids are used by up to 11 percent of teenage male athletes and that female athletes are the fastest growing group using the drug. Here in the Province of Quebec, a survey among 2000 young athletes showed that 3/4 of them think that the use of steroids at their age won't affect their health. They think they are in perfect shape and that there is no risk of having health problems for them. They think they are invincible. Most scary is that 500 of them admitted to have used or are still using steroids. And that is not counting the ones that are hiding.

A question was asked among a sample of Olympic athletes in 2000 in Sydney. The question was: "If you can take a pill that will guarantee you a gold medal but will kill you in 5 years would you take it?" 85% said they would take the pill! Now, this wasn't a scientific survey but nevertheless...

What can we do as parents, as coaches, as administrators? Well, education and good communication is the base of everything. We have to keep on teaching the side effects of using steroids. This is not simple because steroids do work. You do get bigger. You can train harder. There was a lot of bad publicity over Ben Johnson's use of steroids, but he did win races until he was caught. Kids think they won't get caught, and they definitely don't think of the long-term physical consequences. They just think steroids will help them win races. So we have to keep showing them a Ben Johnson gone in disgrace after he got caught. We have to keep telling them about a Florence Joyner who did die because of steroids. And other cases like that.

We also have to be attentive. It's hard to miss athletes who are on steroids. They have all the symptoms: erratic behaviors, weight gain, strength gain …puffy appearance.

But most of all, we have to quit putting too much pressure on our kids. Stop focusing on the results and start focusing on the benefits of efforts, perseverance, and integrity. After all, a victory is much more rewarding when acquired using these attributes than by cheating. No? Or am I again an unrealistic daydreamer?

Good bye and take care of your kids!