Visualize. Realize. Actualize.

The other night, my seven year old daughter, Rio, my three year old son, Arlo, and my husband, Brooklin, and I were playing a game of “basketball” post-kids bath, before bedtime. (Yes, I know this is not exactly a wind-down, pre-bed activity.) You may be wondering why “basketball” is in quotations (and even if you aren’t, maybe you are now!)…well, this is a suction-cupped to the back of the door, mini-hoop game you get as a thanks for coming to my party kind of basketball game. The thing about this smaller than the palm of your hand ball, and only a smidgen bigger hoop size, is that it is not entirely easy to make a basket. Forget the fact that height has never been on my side to really get into the game.

I was shooting and missing more times than I’d like to admit, and with each missed basket, I could feel my jaw tighten and my competitive edge fueling my blood pressure spike. It was in that moment, when I decided to take a deep breath, and choose calm over frustration, and then I channeled my inner Michael Jordan (this is my story, so yes, I am comparing myself to the great Air Jordan.) I stood staring at the basket, breathing (yes, this is deeply important…shocking, I know), and I visualized the ball going into the hoop. I envisioned the ball soaring through the air, swishing through the net, time after time.

Now, mind you, this whole time, my husband was not sitting idly on the sidelines. He grabbed the ball, mockingly exaggerating my visualization techniques with words, “I see the ball going swish into the hoop. I see the ball going swish into the hoop. The ball is going into the hoop,” he said. He shoots. Guess where I’m going with this? Yep, he scores. That my friends, is the power of visualization and speaking out loud what is.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t make a basket every time I used this technique, but every single time I slowed down to breathe and visualize, it came exponentially closer than when I didn’t.

When we visualize what we want, and I mean really visualize what it looks like, not just say, “I want x, y, and z,” then we are allowing into our mind what is possible. This is a powerful mindset tool, and creates a pathway of opportunity, as we become more aware of what fits within our vision and what doesn’t.

So, do you have to see it to believe it? What would happen if you believed it first?

xoxo

Mel