New year, new you!

The New Year is a wonderful time to think about what goals you hope to accomplish for the year ahead. As Pablo Picasso once said, “everything you can imagine is real”. This means you can do anything you set your mind to! But when it comes to our health, it can be overwhelming getting started with your goals.

Visualization is an incredibly powerful tool that can help you build confidence and manifest your goals. You can use tools like vision boards, sticky notes, journals, apps, or guided visualizations to bring your goals to life.

Keep reading to find out how you can use visualization to set yourself up for success with your goals.

Set the stage

To begin, choose one goal that you’d like to achieve. Be specific and use an action-oriented voice. For example, “I will read 5 books by the end of this year”, rather than “I would like to read more”.

During visualization, picture all stages of your goal to make it come alive in your mind. Consider what you’re doing in preparation, during, and after accomplishing your goal. Use all of your senses to project yourself into the future.

Get into a comfortable position, close your eyes, and imagine in as much detail as possible. Review the following questions before visualization to give your experience direction:

What are some of the things I need to prepare?

What’s the first thing I’m doing?

What am I saying to motivate myself?

Next, imagine you are working on your goal. Ask yourself:

Where am I?

What am I doing?

How do I feel as I’m doing it?

Finally, think about how it will feel once you have accomplished your goal:

How do I feel now that I’ve achieved my goal?

What am I thinking about this goal now? Is it easier, harder, more manageable?

What does this new version of me look like?

Make a mental movie! Use your imagination to picture accomplishing your goal as a movie with a beginning, middle and end. This will bring you one step closer to making your visualization a reality.

Don’t forget to periodically reflect on your goals as you work through them! You can always repeat this exercise at any point to help bring more clarity and direction to your goals.