The Power of Imagination - The Ideal Self

There are 3 laws in psychology that are particularly useful in developing motivational ideas and images in your mind:

• 1. Coue's Law or the law of reversed effect
  When the will and the imagination come into conflict, the imagination always wins.

  The classic example of this is 'walking the plank'. If I was to place a rigid plank of wood on the floor and asked you to walk along it, you would have no problem doing so. If I then placed that plank with each end on a table and asked you to walk along it, you could probably do that too, though more carefully. If, finally, I placed that plank ten floors up across an alley between two buildings you probably wouldn't even attempt it, though the task was the same.

• 2. The law of concentrated attention.
  When spontaneous attention is concentrated on an idea, the idea tends to realise itself.
• 3. The law of dominant effect.
  Attaching an emotion to a suggestion makes it more effective.

You need to get your imagination working powerfully on your behalf. You need to create a strong mental image of your ideal self. Bring this image to mind as often as you can so that you remain focused on it. This activates your subconscious.

 

You need to really believe and feel the experiences that you imagine. If you can make your ideal self as vivid as possible the human mind can have a hard time distinguishing between reality and fiction.

 

The best way to do this is to imagine your ideal self in as much detail as possible; how you look; how you act; what you sound like; how you dress; your friends and associates; where you live. Make vivid images. See yourself being successful and enjoying the fruits of your success. Create a short movie clip of yourself in the future, the way you want to be and run this film over and over as often as you can so that it is firmly embedded in your mind.

• 1. Create an image of your ideal self.
• 2. Make it bright, colourful, vivid, close-up, and full of action.
• 3. Add sounds and feelings. Build it into a short movie.
• 4. Become emotionally involved in the scene.
• 5. Replay the short movie as often as you can, at least on a daily basis.