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Success Lessons from the Winter Olympics
Visualization
Stephen Kraus
Over the next few weeks, the Olympics will no doubt generate
many headlines focusing on inspirational stories, unexpected
successes, good/bad television ratings, and even scandals.
But here's a fact you probably won't hear much about: With
each Olympics, countries throughout the world rely more heavily
on sports psychology to help their athletes achieve success
and win gold.
Canada, for example, is hoping to rebound from their disappointing
2002 effort by sending 12 psychologists with their team to
the Olympics in Turin, instead of the seven they sent to Salt
Lake. The U.S. took just two psychology experts to Lillehammer
in 1994, and then attempted to achieve greater success by
taking 11 to Salt Lake.
Why this increased reliance on sports psychology?
Simple. Sports psychology works.
Numerous studies have shown that the techniques of sports
psychology significantly enhance success and performance.
That's particularly true in the Olympics, when the different
between gold and silver is often hundredths of a second or
fractions of a point. When physical performances are nearly
equal, the mental edge determines winning and losing. Psychology
becomes crucial to success.
Sports psychology features a number of proven techniques to
enhance success and performance, but this article focuses
on one in particular: Visualization.
Visualization goes by many names, including mental practice
and covert rehearsal. It's been a favorite tool of sports
psychology experts for many years, but it has an even longer
history as a technique for motivation, self-help, and self-improvement.
In the late 1800s, many popular self-help and self-improvement
movements swept the country, including Christian Science and
the "New Thought" movement. Some of these "schools" of self-improvement
were overtly religious, while others took a more philosophical
approach to the psychology of success. But they all shared
a common belief in the importance of psychology as crucial
to success. Specifically, they all taught that our beliefs
literally shape our reality, and that visualizing the future
*creates* the future. In a sense, they preached that psychology
is destiny, and the path to self-help and self-improvement
begins with visualizing what you truly want. Many of today's
motivational gurus borrow heavily from these century-old self-improvement
movements.
In the 1920s, followers of Freudian psychology also preached
the benefits of visualization, but for different reasons.
They believed that visualizing the future influences the unconscious
mind, and in turn, the psychological dynamics of the unconscious
would push you toward what you visualized, without you even
realizing it. Again, the fundamental philosophy of self-improvement
at work is that psychology is destiny, and visualizing the
future is crucial for motivation and success.
==> Why Visualization Really Works
Today, research in sports psychology has made it clear that
visualization can enhance success and performance in sports.
But parallel research in positive psychology has confirmed
that visualization can enhance success in everyday life, making
it a valuable tool for those interested in motivation, self-help,
and self-improvement. But the reasons that visualization enhances
the psychology of success are more practical and pragmatic
than followers of Freudian psychology or popular self-help
movements would have us believe. Here are the three main reasons
that visualization enhances success and self-improvement:
1) Visualization enhances confidence
Research in the field of positive psychology shows that simply
thinking about an event makes it seem more likely that it
will actually happen. As you think about an event, you begin
to construct mental scenarios of how it might occur, and even
more importantly, how you might *make* it happen. The result
is often greater confidence, and self-improvement occurs via
a "self-fulfilling prophecy." The psychological process is
simple:
Visualization => Confidence ==> Action ==> Results ==> Success
2) Visualization boosts motivation
Visualization boosts motivation as well as confidence, making
self-help and self-improvement more effective. As your dreams
for the future seem more likely, you become more motivated
to initiate and sustain action.
Setting goals is often a very rational, even "dry" element
of one's efforts for self-improvement. But visualizing your
desired future is a very different psychological process,
making abstract goals very tangible and concrete in your mind.
This process engages your emotions as well as your thoughts,
and generates an authentic excitement that motivates self-improvement.
Visualizing your future also makes you aware of the gap between
where you are now, and where you want to be. The result is
more motivation for self-improvement, as you strive to close
the gap between your future ambitions and your current reality.
3) Visualizing is a form of practice
This is the most important reason that visualization enhances
success, but the one most often overlooked in self-help and
self-improvement books. Like any kind of practice, visualizing
a behavior makes you more skilled and successful when it comes
time to actually engage in that behavior. Moreover, visualized
behaviors can be practiced more quickly, easily, and frequently
than actual behavior -- that's part of why world-class athletes
regularly complement their actual practice sessions with regimens
of psychologically-focused visualized practice.
Visualization also used routinely in psychology and self-improvement
because it is excellent for practicing behaviors that are
too frightening, intimidating, or even dangerous to perform
in person. For example…
Salespeople who fear rejection perform better and are more
motivated if the visualize themselves facing, and bouncing
back from, rejection
Psychotherapists routinely ask patients to visualize themselves
facing their fears and anxieties as a way of easing them into
actually confronting those fears
Recovering alcoholics can begin practicing their skills at
resisting temptation by visualizing themselves facing, and
resisting, tempting situations such as parties or restaurants
In each case, it is clear how visualization allows you to
practice your success skills, making self-help and self-improvement
more effective.
==> Visualization Tips for Maximum Performance
Of course, visualization needs to be a complement to actual
practice, not a replacement. But done properly, it can make
actual practice even more effective, and start fostering a
psychological mindset of success. Done improperly, it can
even hurt performance. To incorporate visualization into your
self-improvement and motivational efforts most effectively,
just keep these three principles in mind…
1. Correct visualization
Visualization only enhances success if you visualize the appropriate
behavior. On the other hand, visualizing incorrect or ineffective
behavior creates the wrong psychological mindset, hurting
performance and minimizing success.
Sounds obvious, but this principle of the psychology of visualization
is often violated, particularly by novice athletes. For example,
someone who has just started playing basketball can certainly
visualize themselves shooting f'ree throws, but because they
haven't had much coaching or training, they are likely to
visualize the wrong things (e.g., not bending their knees,
not following through). As a result, visualization has been
shown to actually hamper the success of novice athletes. But
many studies have shown that experienced athletes, who use
proper form and technique, will benefit from visualization,
because they are likely to visualize the right things.
The bottom line: If you are new to a sport or other endeavor,
maximize your success by skipping visualization for now. Instead,
your best path toward success and self-improvement is to focus
on real practice, learning from skilled performers, taking
lessons, getting training, etc.
2. Distributed visualization
Visualization increases success and self-improvement most
effectively when visualization sessions are distributed over
time, as opposed to being "bunched" into fewer, longer sessions.
This is true for any kind of practice or preparation. For
example, in preparing for a test, short bursts of studying
distributed over time (e.g., one hour per night for four nights)
leads to better results and more success than cramming (e.g.,
four hours in one night). The advice of "a little practice
over many days" -- commonly offered by self-help books --
is definitely not self-help snake oil.
3. Precise visualization focused on the means, not the ends
Visualization must be precise, vivid and detailed to be an
effective tool for enhanced motivation and success. Self-help
and self-improvement books often encourage people to visualize
broad ends, like "being richer" or "having less fear." Although
this can temporarily boost confidence and motivation, this
is one case in which many popular self-help and self-improvement
books often steer people in the wrong direction. Visualizing
the "ends" -- how your life would be if you accomplished your
goals -- is not the most effective approach because it doesn't
provide the many benefits of practice.
Instead, research in positive psychology shows that visualizing
the "means" rather than the "ends" leads to more personal
growth; documented benefits include reduced anxiety, more
effective planning, and enhanced success. For example, don't
envision "having a great sales year." Instead, a better strategy
for success and self-improvement is envisioning yourself going
to specific sales meetings, your actions in those meetings,
the reactions of others, and how you will specifically overcome
obstacles and persist in the face of rejection. Use all your
senses -- as you imagine the actions of others, consider how
they might they might dress and the sounds of their voices.
In short, self-improvement requires visualizing how you achieve
self-improvement, rather than how it will feel to have accomplished
your self-improvement goals.
When visualization was successfully used as a psychological
tool with the 1976 U. S. Olympic ski team, for example, precision,
detail and focusing on the "means" were crucial to the process.
Skiers focused less on their eventual success of winning the
gold medal, and instead visualized themselves careening through
the entire course, experiencing each bump and turn in their
minds. That team went on to have unexpectedly strong success,
and precise visualization has been a standard psychological
tool in the training of Olympic athletes ever since. You can
use these same principles to enhance your own motivation,
self-improvement, and success.
Harvard-trained psychologist Dr. Stephen Kraus separates
the science of success from self-help snake oil. Get his free
7-day Real Science of Success e-course, and report on Becoming
More Resilient & Persistent at http://www.RealScienceofSuccess.com.
Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Stephen_Kraus
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