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Our minds are extremely powerful, and they impact the direction of our lives. Because of this, it's essential that you train your mind to see outcomes which are favorable rather than those that disparage your greatness. This lesson is one that I learned from Mr. Larry's Mental Success, and I am certain that you, too, will learn this lesson from his story.

When I was 16 years old, I was shooting hoops on my basketball goal in front of my house. My neighbor, Mr. Larry, who was 55 years old, with bad knees, walked to my house to play me one-on-one. He and I played every Saturday and despite me being younger than him, I would always lose. It puzzled me how a man almost 4 times my age could continuously beat me in basketball. 

After losing to him again, he said, "Gene, let me teach you something that my college coach taught me. One day he pulled me aside and said "Larry, before you play in a basketball game, spend a little time visualizing yourself being successful on the basketball court."

Curious, I asked, "What do you mean by visualize?" "It's mentally focusing on yourself playing successfully in your mind. It's like having a mental movie in which you are the star. I do this every Saturday before I play you. Let me tell you how it works, because it can help you become successful on the court and in life." Before I play you in basketball, I sit on my porch and visualize myself beating you. You are younger than me, with more skill and energy. Instead of focusing on that, I visualize myself dribbling and shooting the ball on certain spots of the court. I see myself faking you out, shooting the ball over you, and it's going through the bottom of the net."

His revelation of this mental technique interested me because I was experiencing its effects every Saturday. He went on to say, "Gene, you have a subconscious mind, and it's responsible for the automatic processes in your body like your breathing and heartbeat. It can also help you on the basketball court if you constantly visualize the success you want, in addition to you working on your basketball skills. Your subconscious mind will use your instincts to aid you in achieving the success you want on the basketball court." "Really! I've never heard this before Mr. Larry."

"It's called visualization and this is what I've been using against you. Now this only works if you have skills for the subconscious mind to work with. This is why I stated that you use visualization in addition to working on your basketball skills. I've played basketball a lot in my life, so my subconscious mind has skills to use. It's like when you first learned how to ride a bicycle, you hadn't developed the ability to balance yourself and pedal, so you couldn't ride the bike despite visualizing yourself doing so. It wasn't until you practiced balancing yourself and pedaling that you could finally ride the bike successfully as you envision. Gene, if you use this same approach with visualization and skill development in any area of your life, you will become successful."

Till this day, I credit that conversation on visualization with Mr. Larry for playing a significant role in the many goals and dreams I've accomplished. Now I want to help you use the power of visualization in your own life.

WORKSHEET QUESTIONS or DISCUSSION:

Mr. Larry's Mental Success Questions:

Write a short-term goal you want to achieve in the next 30 days, create a self-discipline action plan that will allow you to work towards that goal, and schedule a daily 2-5 minute visualization session where you can sit or lay in one spot and visualize yourself achieving that goal. 

1) What short-term goal would you like to achieve in the next 30 days? (Make sure it's realistic.)

My Self-Discipline Action Step(s)

2) Give 1-3 action steps you will take to realize this goal.

3) Schedule 2-5 minute visualization sections in which you will sit or lay in one spot and visualize yourself achieving the success you want with your goal.

Day:

Visualization Time (2-5 mins):

Visualization takes practice for its mastery. That is why it is important that you discipline yourself by following through on your visualization sessions, so you can make your goals and dreams a reality in your life because You Are WORTHY TO BE GREAT!