As you may probably already know, I’m a huge Ed Mylett fan. A few weeks ago, I watched a podcast episode he had with Phil Mickelson. I’m not a golf enthusiast so I had no idea that Phil was in his 50’s and about to play in the 2021 PGA Tour that same week. I found out several days later that at the age of 50 he had one the 2021 PGA Championship. This baffled me as I recall thinking about his visualization techniques he incorporates into his life, both professionally (sports) and personally (family).
“…that ability to control your thoughts ultimately will lead to success, I believe, in whatever your line of work is because you have to be able to see what you want to have happen. Visualizing and mental preparation is every bit as effective as physical preparation…” – Phil Mickelson
Phil gave an example of a study that was conducted to test the efficacy of visualization around basketball…specifically shooting free-throws.
In this case study, they split up the participates into three groups as follows:
- Participants physically practiced shot free-throws – performed the worst
- Participants only visualized shot free-throws – did just as well as the “both” group
- Participants physically practiced and visualized shot free-throws – Both (visualize & physical) – did just as well as (just visualization)
The end result was that the group that only visualized shooting free-throws actually ended up doing just as well as the group that physically practiced and visualized shooting free-throws. Morale of the story; positive & effective visualization is key to your success.
Phil followed up with, “It’s [visualization] a powerful tool…and you really have to perform it with physical practice as well.”
Application:
- I don’t have to be a pro-athlete to implement this type of process
- Mental diet – focusing on seeing myself be who I want to be and doing what I want to be doing, I can make my mind become familiar with this lifestyle and help direct me in actually attaining it.
- Seeing the presentation going the way I want in a business setting
I’d like to end with another quote by Phi, “When you visualize, you visualize perfection…you visualize hitting the shot the way you want to.”
So today, I invite you to visualize what you want to happen, not what fear is trying to distract you with.