Can Visualization Make You Stronger?

Ever notice anyone in the gym doing a pre-lift ritual with their eyes closed – kind of like Olympic athletes do before an event?

Most likely not.

And the reason is that most people, outside of high performance athletics, have yet to realize the power of the mind on their ability to workout more effectively and muster more strength.

That trend might be changing, however. And for good reason.

Why?

Well, a brand new study out of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research suggests that indeed, mental imagery (aka. visualization) can make you stronger.

Aside from the promising “performance” benefits of using visualization, this study actually begins to explain how mental imagery might work at a neurological level!

And that’s pretty cool.

What did Michael Phelps do before he won each of his 8 gold medals in the 2008 Olympics?

He visualized the outcome.

It sounds like pop-psychology nonsense, but “Mental Rehearsal” is actually common practice among elite athletes these days.

Now, that doesn’t mean that “everything you imagine in your mind comes true” as some will have you believe. (There actually isn’t any credible science to support that.)

But it does mean that seeing something in your mind before you *do* it (that’s the key) dramatically impacts the outcome.

I used to be terrified of public speaking. So I decided to visualize myself walking up on the stage calmly and speaking with confidence.

This sort of “imprinted” the correct neurologically into my mind and it was like “flipping a switch.”

Now I can speak in front of thousands with the same grace and ease as I would have when speaking to a close friend.

That’s the power of visualization

After all …

How can you hit a target when you can’t see it?

Imagine playing darts blindfolded. You’d be lucky if your dart even came close to the board.

This provides a perfect metaphor for the things we want in life.

When we only have a vague notion of “stuff we want” and we don’t actually zoom in precisely on specifics, it’s like we’re going through life blindfolded …

Will we hit our targets?

“You’d be lucky if your dart even came close to the board!”

Time doesn’t stop for us even if we haven’t made up our minds.

How many precious minutes of our lives will we waste in silent suffering because we can’t make up our minds?

Can you imagine looking back on your life and saying, “I never made up my mind, so I watched a lot of TV?”

You can either:

Make all the normal excuses …

“Is it really worth the effort?”

“Is it really what I want?”

“Is it even possible?”

“What if I fail?”

Or you can:

Make a clear decision, set your mind to it, write up a clear plan, and put it into action.

And get Result?

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