The Power of Visualisation – the RAS

About 2 years ago I created a Dream Board which is basically a bucket list of things I want to achieve over the next 20 years. The difference between a bucket list and a Dream Board is that the Dream Board is made up of images not words.

You’ve heard the phrase ‘A picture paints a thousand words’ and there appears to be truth in this statement. One of the pictures on my board is a row of wooden book cases in Waterstones and this represents writing and publishing my first book. This has been a dream for quite a while now but it involves a great deal of time and effort and so I have been putting it off.

Every morning before starting work I spend about an hour reading motivational books to get me in a positive state of mind for the day. I find that I achieve a great deal more in the day if I am positive and motivated. One of the things I do when I am having this motivational time is to visualise achieving the 24 things I have on my board (which is in fact an A4 piece of paper laminated).

I imagine myself in the future situation having achieved the dream I am visualising. I do this in detail using all my senses and emotions to really experience the achievement. By doing this I seem to experience a new level of motivation and I have already achieved several of these dreams on my board. These include speaking on a Caribbean Cruise, buying my dream car, meeting my future wife (we get married next May 2015) and having the best year I’ve ever had last year.

Writing my book is the latest dream to gain momentum and it’s down to the Dream Board and something called the Reticular Activation System or the RAS for short. The RAS is there to reduce our awareness of everything around us by about 95% so we can cope with life. However have you noticed when you buy something new you suddenly see this everywhere for example a specific type of car and suddenly they are everywhere. The scientific explanation of this is the RAS opening up for that specific thing.

An example of this is when I was giving a talk at a network event a few months ago and after my talk the host was giving a few details for the next meeting and mentioned that there was a book writing workshop coming up with a book coach and asked for people to sign up. I wasn’t really listening to what he was saying but when book writing was mentioned an alarm went off in my head and I was wide awake.

I couldn’t make the particular date for the workshop, nor the second date but amazingly I was offered a half day one-to-one session with the book writing coach which was fantastic. She came up with a great title for the book, the audience I should be aiming for, even the cover design which is very clever. I have signed up with her and will have my first book published next year.

Would this have all happened if I hadn’t visualised Waterstones and a queue of people lining up for me to sign my book – I don’t think so. This book coach also has a publishing company and she thinks I have a wonderful concept for the book and will be publishing it. Another interesting thing to note is she has contact with Waterstones and told me that I will have a book signing in Waterstones Nottingham when the book comes out.

It still amazes me that at the age of 60 my life is exploding. I’ve found my passion in life which is speaking, training and coaching people to achieve more in their lives. I believe that part of this success is my constant positive mindset and giving out positive emotions and of course visualising the future I desire. My 20 year plan to be speaking on stage at the age of 80 is alive and well.

Have a great week and dream big!

John