Focus Your Mind's Eye

In his mind’s eye the world-class pole vaulter sees himself running to the bar in perfect pace, his pole angled at the correct angle. He launches himself, bending the pole in a perfect arch. As the pole springs to its full extension, the vaulter’s body extends high above it. He clears the bar by a mere inch. The crowd rises to its feet and roars its appreciation. They have just witnessed the breaking of a world record. The athlete visualizes this scene a thousand times before the competition even begins. He knows how it will feel. He knows the actions he must perform in order to make it a reality. It feels familiar to him. He sees it occur before he actually experiences it—a spiritual creation. Every great athlete runs through this spiritual creation before every event. He focuses on the victory. He avoids thinking about failure and defeat. He thinks nothing of what will happen if he doesn’t win. His focus is on the victory. In the same way the great writer sees in his mind’s eye his reader feeling the emotion hewants to evoke. Even I do this. As I write this, I see you finish reading these words and thinking to yourself, "I can do that!" "I will focus on winning." Then, when I receive your e-mails describinghow my writing has helped you, it feels familiar and wonderful. To achieve your lofty dreams, you must focuson what you want. What you think about most you will ultimately attain. If you focus on winning and attaining, you will win and attain. If you focus on your problems, you will stay mired in your problems. Think solutions. As you work on a problem, think less about the problem and much more on the solution. What will it take for you to reach your loftiestgoals? Engage your mind’s eye in visualizing your victory. What must you do well to reach your goal? What must you learn? What must you think? What must you be? Evaluate your thoughts. Are they leading you toward or away from your goals? Picture yourself ten years from now. You won the fight. You overcame the obstacles inyour path. You did what you needed to achieve your dreams. You learned what you needed to learn. You cleared the bar. How does it feel? Wasn’t it worth it? Like the world-class pole vaulter, you can lead yourself to victory by focusing on what you want. You can do this. You can focus on winning. You can win.