Everyone who wants to be more successful recognizes that certain tools and techniques can make all the difference in achieving goals. One tool that is often overlooked is visualization. Visualization goes way beyond daydreaming. And effective visualization incorporates more than creating images in the mind. When we hone visualization skills, we are able to connect to our vision and uplevel our mindset and attitude. We integrate all of that with taking the right actions at the right time to meet our goals. While there is a lot to learn around all of that, we make it simple in one easy-to-use app. The result? You have a powerful tool that gives you a leg up on the competition when it comes to achieving your goals.

Achieving a goal is often quite different from how people imagine it to be. All you have to do is stay focused and dedicated and you make it happen, right? But the reality is often quite a bit different. What usually happens is we get stalled by unwanted distractions, limiting beliefs or unforeseen obstacles. Visualization is about empowering ourselves with an unstoppable mindset so that we can show up differently in the face of these distractions, beliefs and obstacles. It shifts our mindset and attitude to a more positive state in the moments when we need it the most. When we do this, we naturally progress towards our goal. You may get off track occasionally. You may encounter unforeseen challenges. You may run into self doubt. But the effects of your visualization practice will quickly bring you back to center because you have primed your mind to show up as your best self in all of these situations. And there you go — empowered to realize your goal.

Visualization helps us to achieve our goals. It gives us greater clarity. It inspires us and gives us greater motivation. And it primes our mind to stay focused and alert to otherwise hidden opportunities. An example of this is Jim Carrey.

When Jim Carrey was a struggling standup comedian, he had a vision of becoming a Hollywood actor. At the time though, he was broke and barely able to make ends meet. He was about as far away from a successful Hollywood actor as one can get. Even so, he committed to his vision — so much so that he wrote himself a check for $10 million for “Acting Services Rendered” and dated it 10 years into the future. He worked extremely hard, dealt with challenges and setbacks, visualized, and never gave up on the belief that what he desired was going to happen. Then just before the date of the check he’d written to himself, he received his largest contract for a movie to date for $10 million – the exact amount on the check. If we are willing to do the work, visualization can help us achieve our goals.

No one likes an arrogant bully. But there is a difference between arrogance and self confidence. One is an exaggerated sense of importance and the other is a realistic state of knowing that you are capable. If you struggle with self confidence, visualization can help. It shifts our mental/emotional state from one of insecurity, to one of self confidence. How? It retrains the subconscious mind to see challenges and problems as opportunities. And when we have more self confidence and meet challenges in a more empowered way, then that is, as one of our users says “a real game changer.” Visualization definitely is a game changer — so why not check it out?

Nothing is as important in achieving our goals as having the energy and the motivation needed to move towards them. Visualization helps us to be able to shift our mindset and attitude. It helps us to stay inspired, and that is central to us cultivating greater motivation and the success it creates. As some of our users have said, “this is life-changing.” We all want to feel inspired and excited about our future. And visualization holds the key to that inspiration and motivation.

Visualization is a multifaceted tool that can help us to perform at our best. It is powerful in helping us to rehearse and practice and allow us to perform at our best. That is the case whether we are talking about athletic performance, giving a speech or asking for a raise. Don’t just take our word for it. Listen to U.S. Open winner Bianca Andreescu. She began visualizing herself beating Serena Williams in the U.S. Open when she was just 12 years old. With much hard work and using visualization as part of her training, seven years later that exact vision became a reality when she beat Serena at the U.S. Open to win her first Grand Slam title. As Bianca explained when asked about her visualization practice: “I’ve been visualizing ever since I was 12 or 13 when my amazing mother introduced me to it. I find it very helpful. I believe we create our reality with our mind. For it to actually become a reality is crazy. I guess these visualizations really, really work.” Visualization can help us perform better in any area of life.

Visualization is not about daydreaming. Nor is it about magic. We don’t picture something we want and just expect it to materialize out of thin air. If it does, great. But it usually is not that simple. And if you are doing something high-stakes, like being a Navy Seal training for combat conditions, or leading a corporation, or creating your own business, you can’t leave things to chance. For that reason at EnVision we have incorporated success strategies with visualization, so that you can learn to use visualization like a Navy Seal. A Seal has an objective and visualizes meeting that objective. But they also visualize obstacles and what contingency plans they have if that obstacle appears. They go through each obstacle and contingency plan and visualize those until they become rote — part of the subconscious mind. This translates visualization from wishful thinking to a highly effective success tool. And that is why we created the EnVision Daily Habit — so you can think like a Navy Seal.

We are always impressed with our users and how they have been able to incorporate visualization into their lives and see things improve. This is the point of effective visualization and of the EnVision approach. We are focused on helping people reach the goals they have for their lives. For that, visualization is a great success tool. As one of our users wrote to us, “I wrote down my goals and then a year later I looked back over the things that I’d written and thought, wow, those things really came true, they did happen.” Visualization can help empower us to achieve our goals. And in the process, we can often be surprised with the results. You see each day’s slight improvement with visualization can snowball, resulting in large gains after a year. Surprise yourself, empower your goal achievement with visualization.

We can use visualization to achieve our goals faster and better. It doesn’t matter what the goal is. It can be a clear achievement like graduating at the top of your class or completing a triathlon. It can also be showing up with a calm, neutral attitude in times of conflict. Or developing a habit of saving money each month. Whatever the goal, when we visualize, we begin to train the mind to operate in a manner that increases our chances of success. We also create the mindset and attitude that sets us up to achieve our goals. As one of our users noted, “I already have achieved several goals using this app – I gave a successful speech and ran a marathon.” We all have different goals. But having tools to help us get there can make all the difference. Visualization is one of those tools.

It used to be that if you went to college you had an advantage in becoming successful. Society is changing and college is not the same ticket it used to be. As the world economy is shifting, so too are the rules for success. In a very competitive arena, we need every advantage we can get. And visualization can be that edge. As one of our users said, “Visualizing definitely gave me an edge. Visualizing before a live show gives me a huge advantage over people who don’t do it.” Why is that? Because we use more of our brain, especially the right brain, when we visualize. We tap into more of our potential and that can definitely give us an advantage over those who don’t.

Everyone thinks. Pretty much everyone reads. Yet, there are ways of learning to think and ways of refining the skill of reading to double or triple your speed and comprehension. Like that, while we all have the capability of creating images in our minds, we don’t often realize this is a skill. It is something that can be honed and applied in new ways. One way visualization can be used is to create powerful intentions for how we are going to move through our day. We can visualize to create an unstoppable mindset and attitude, and then utilize intention to bring this into our day. Intention is important and that is why we follow our visualization sessions with setting an intention in the EnVision app. Check out this tool to set up your day in a new way.