Part II of the Success Traits Series

Everyone has big dreams. Everyone wants to be successful. Maybe you see yourself making an Oscar acceptance speech or winning the Nobel Prize. Perhaps you want to be a successful entrepreneur or an elite athlete. Maybe you are like me and just want to add value to as many other people as possible.

Whether you want to be winning an Olympic medal or making your first million, you can use the power of visualization to make your dreams of success a reality. Don’t let the “Fluffyness” of this cause you to pull the parachute on the topic. Read on.

1. Picture Yourself Winning

Just wanting to be successful isn’t enough. You have to be able to taste your success. Picture yourself being offered that promotion, being congratulated by friends and family, seeing your new business cards.

Make your success as real and detailed as you can. How good does it feel?

When I used to race motorcycles, I would literally draw pictures of the corners and parts of the track from memory – then compare my memory to the experience. The difference between memory and live, gave me insight to how much more I had to visualize the task. The more correct my visualization, the better my results on track. As I transitioned to a public speaker, while most of my content is not from memorization, I still visualized successful communication before the event – leading to stronger events.

• Find Your Trigger

Finding your own personal success trigger can be a powerful way to keep the momentum going and your energy high. Write down your big goal, whether it’s winning an Oscar or scholarship, or running your own business. Make it a positive statement that is straightforward and concise. For example, “I will be promoted to Vice President next year.”

Look at your trigger statement every day. Maybe make it your computer wallpaper or your smartphone’s lock screen. When Jim Carrey was a young actor trying to make it big, he famously wrote himself a $10 million check dated far into the future. When that day came, he was offered $10million for his role in Dumb and Dumber.

Remember that story when you see your trigger statement and think of how good it will feel to achieve your goal. If you fail to embrace a success trigger, you may actually suffer from an assumed failure trigger. Fear of success is very real and this visualization exercise can help jump that obstacle.

• Create A Vision Board

Vision boards help to make your dreams concrete. You can use pictures, photos, affirmations, and quotes to create a picture of the life you want.

A vision board can be a poster, a Pinterest board, a whiteboard, or a journal. Make you sure you keep your vision board where you can see it every day and add to it when you need to or when you find a new photo or quote that really speaks to you.

• Feed Your Dream

You can make your visualization even more potent by nourishing it with positivity. Don’t put all the good feelings in the future but feed your dream with happy memories. Think of times when you felt happy, successful, and content with your life. In my life, I have actually embraced previously negative moments as the motivation for positive growth. Find the silver lining in every cloud.

These positive images reinforce to your mind that you have already proven you can have a happy, fulfilled life. Keep negativity at bay by reminding yourself that you have done it, you are doing it, you can do it! Steve Harvey said in one of his motivational videos “You have a 100% success rate in beating every obstacle so far in yo life!”. It’s true, right?