You have an awesome power that most of us have never been taught to
use effectively.

Elite athletes use it. The super rich use it. And peak performers
in all fields now use it. That power is called visualization.

The daily practice of visualizing your dreams as already complete
can rapidly accelerate your achievement of those dreams, goals and ambitions.

Visualization of your goals and desires accomplishes four
very important things.

1.) It activates your creative subconscious which
will start generating creative ideas to achieve your goal.

2.) It programs your brain to more readily
perceive and recognize the resources you will need to achieve your dreams.

3.) It activates the law of attraction, thereby
drawing into your life the people, resources, and circumstances you will need to
achieve your goals.

4.) It builds your internal motivation to take
the necessary actions to achieve your dreams.

Visualization is really quite simple. You sit in a comfortable
position, close your eyes and imagine -- in as vivid detail as you can -- what
you would be looking at if the dream you have were already realized. Imagine
being inside of yourself, looking out through your eyes at the ideal result.

Mental Rehearsal

Athletes call this visualization process "mental rehearsal," and
they have been using it since the 1960s when we learned about it from the
Russians.

All you have to do is set aside a few minutes a day. The best
times are when you first wake up, after meditation or prayer, and right before
you go to bed. These are the times you are most relaxed.

Go through the following three steps:

STEP 1. Imagine sitting in a movie theater, the
lights dim, and then the movie starts. It is a movie of you doing perfectly
whatever it is that you want to do better. See as much detail as you can create,
including your clothing, the expression on your face, small body movements, the
environment and any other people that might be around. Add in any sounds you
would be hearing -- traffic, music, other people talking, cheering. And finally,
recreate in your body any feelings you think you would be experiencing as you
engage in this activity.

STEP 2. Get out of your chair, walk up to the
screen, open a door in the screen and enter into the movie. Now experience the
whole thing again from inside of yourself, looking out through your eyes. This
is called an "embodied image" rather than a "distant image." It will deepen the
impact of the experience. Again, see everything in vivid detail, hear the sounds
you would hear, and feel the feelings you would feel.

STEP 3. Finally, walk back out of the screen that
is still showing the picture of you performing perfectly, return to your seat in
the theater, reach out and grab the screen and shrink it down to the size of a
cracker. Then, bring this miniature screen up to your mouth, chew it up and
swallow it. Imagine that each tiny piece -- just like a hologram -- contains the
full picture of you performing well. Imagine all these little screens traveling
down into your stomach and out through the bloodstream into every cell of your
body. Then imagine that every cell of your body is lit up with a movie of you
performing perfectly. It's like one of those appliance store windows where 50
televisions are all tuned to the same channel.

When you have finished this process -- it should take less than
five minutes -- you can open your eyes and go about your business. If you make
this part of your daily routine, you will be amazed at how much improvement you
will see in your life.

Create Goal Pictures

Another powerful technique is to create a photograph or picture of
yourself with your goal, as if it were already completed. If one of your goals
is to own a new car, take your camera down to your local auto dealer and have a
picture taken of yourself sitting behind the wheel of your dream car. If your
goal is to visit Paris, find a picture or poster of the Eiffel Tower and cut out
a picture of yourself and place it into the picture.

With today's technology, you can make even more convincing images
using your computer. I personally use our Dream
Big Vision Board Screen Saver Software, click through to see my own personal
vision board in action.

Create a Visual Picture and an Affirmation for Each Goal

We recommend that you find or create a picture of every aspect of
your dream life. Create a picture or a visual representation for every goal you
have -- financial, career, recreation, new skills and abilities, things you want
to purchase, and so on.

When we were writing the very first Chicken Soup for the Soul
book, we took a copy of the New York Times best seller list, scanned it into our
computer, and using the same font as the newspaper, typed Chicken Soup for the
Soul into the number one position in the "Paperback Advice, How-To and
Miscellaneous" category. We printed several copies and hung them up around the
office. Less than two years later, our book was the number one book in that
category and stayed there for over a year!

Index Cards

We practice a similar discipline every day. We each have a list of
about 30-40 goals we are currently working on. We write each goal on a 3x5 index
card and keep those cards near our bed and take them with us when we travel.
Each morning and each night we go through the stack of cards, one at a time,
read the card, close our eyes, see the completion of that goal in its perfect
desired state for about 15 seconds, open our eyes and repeat the process with
the next card.

Use Affirmations to Support Your Visualization

An affirmation is a statement that evokes not only a picture, but
the experience of already having what you want. Here's an example of an
affirmation:

I am happily vacationing 2 months out of the year in a tropical
paradise, and working just four days a week owning my own business.

Repeating an affirmation several times a day keeps you focused on
your goal, strengthens your motivation, and programs your subconscious by
sending an order to your crew to do whatever it takes to make that goal happen.

Expect Results

Through writing down your goals, using the power of visualization
and repeating your affirmations, you can achieve amazing
results.

Visualization and affirmations allow you to change your
beliefs, assumptions, and opinions
about the most important person in your life -- YOU! They allow you to
harness the 18 billion brain cells in your brain and get them all working in a
singular and purposeful direction.

Your subconscious will become engaged in a process that transforms
you forever. The process is invisible and doesn't take a long time. It just
happens over time, as long as you put in the time to visualize and affirm,
surround yourself with positive people, read uplifting books and listen to audio
programs that flood your mind with positive, life-affirming messages.

If you would like a step-by-step, comprehensive approach for
defining your goals, creating affirmations for them and how to create a powerful
visual support system, take a look at our
Dream Big Collection... it contains a everything you need--just add your
dreams!

Repeat your affirmations every morning and night for a
month and they will become an automatic part of your thinking... woven into the
very fabric of your being.