The power of imagination
Back then, I hadn’t yet read any book that emphasizes on the power of “imagining that you already possess what you desire”. Somehow, I ended up visualizing myself in the situations I desired a couple of times and I will tell you how it worked out for me.
Since I was in my 2nd year as an undergraduate, I always associated the mental images of how my convocation would be , with I receiving a gold medal. I am not sure how it started but that’s what I had deeply desired. Well, I sure was hardworking and determined. But then that doesn’t mean no one else in my class was better than me. There were many who were equally good or better. I just wished I got the medal and I gave my personal best in every exam. There were not many semesters I ranked number one too, maybe 1 or 2 out of 8 semesters. But then I was consistently in the top 3. And I never gave up on any subject. At the end of my 4 years, it turned out I did stand at number 1 overall and received the gold medal in my convocation.
Then came my job. I did land in a decent one, just after college. I did give my best at work too. In my second project , I started visualizing myself in the customer location in US. I don’t know how it started but I used to visualize myself having meetings while sipping coffee in a conference room with our customer partners. I didn’t have the slightest idea how the customer office even looked. Well, I imagined it anyway. I imagined myself giving presentations, hanging out with colleagues after office hours. I did know a couple of faces of my colleagues. , as they visited us in Chennai, India, where I worked at that time. Let me tell you that my overall experience at that time was barely over 1 year and those who know how IT industry in India works , know that what I was visualizing was a distant dream. But I was confident. I got transferred to my hometown in the same organization. I joined a new project for a new customer and 3.5 years post that, that visualization did come true. And I am there working for that customer at their headquarters in US even now, and it’s been over 3 years now. Let me tell you, it took a lot of hard work and determination and years of excellent work from me to get there. But then all that I have visualized have come true.
Few months after coming to US , I have read a couple of great books that told the power of visualizing in achieving goals. And I could immediately relate to these 2 instances. Unknowingly, it had been proven true more than once in my life.
Since my school days, I had always thought my peers with equal potential always fared out better than I did. And I was wondering why that was and where was I lagging behind. When I related what I read in the books to what actually happened in my life , it was a moment of true realization. I realized I never desired those outcomes enough. I never formed those goals with as much clarity and so never worked towards them with as much passion or persistence.
This was a very powerful learning that changed how I formed my goals and how I pursued what I desired. I always see myself winning or achieving what I want and it truly empowered me to actually get there. I go to a training visualizing I will be the best in the classroom, I go to an assessment visualizing I will score in the top 1%, I go to a sales pitch imagining we will win the deal, I wake up everyday imagining I will complete what I have planned for the day.
