Success Lessons from the Winter Olympics: Visualization

Over the next few weeks, the Olympic Games will undoubtedly generate plenty of headlines centered around inspiring stories, unexpected successes, good/bad TV ratings, and even scandals.

But here’s a fact you probably don’t hear much about: With each Olympics, countries around the world are relying more on sports psychology to help their athletes achieve success and win gold.

Canada, for example, is hoping to bounce back from its disappointing 2002 effort by sending 12 psychologists with its team to the Turin Olympics, instead of the seven they sent to Salt Lake. The United States brought just two psychology experts to Lillehammer in 1994 and then tried to achieve greater success by bringing 11 to Salt Lake.

Why this increased confidence in sport psychology?

Simple. Sports psychology works.

Numerous studies have shown that sports psychology techniques significantly improve success and performance. That’s particularly true at the Olympic Games, when the difference between gold and silver is often hundredths of a second or fractions of a point. When the physical performances are almost equal, the mental advantage determines winning and losing. Psychology becomes crucial for success.

Sports psychology presents a number of proven techniques for improving success and performance, but this article focuses on one in particular: visualization.

Visualization goes by many names, including mental practice and covert rehearsal. It has been a favorite tool of sports psychology experts for many years, but it has an even longer history as a motivation, self-help, and self-improvement technique.

In the late 1800s, many popular self-help and improvement movements swept the country, including Christian Science and the “New Thought” movement. Some of these self-improvement “schools” were overtly religious, while others took a more philosophical approach to the psychology of success. But they all shared a common belief in the importance of psychology as crucial to success. Specifically, they all taught that our beliefs literally shape our reality, and that envisioning the future *creates* the future. In a sense, they preached that psychology is destiny, and the path to self-help and self-improvement begins with visualizing what you really want. Many of today’s motivation gurus borrow heavily from these centuries-old self-improvement movements.

In the 1920s, followers of Freudian psychology also preached the benefits of visualization, but for different reasons. They believed that visualizing the future influences the unconscious mind, and in turn, the psychological dynamics of the unconscious would push you toward what you envisioned, without even realizing it. Again, the fundamental philosophy of self-improvement at work is that psychology is destiny, and envisioning the future is crucial for motivation and success.

==> Why visualization really works

Today, sports psychology research has made it clear that visualization can enhance success and performance in sports. But parallel research in positive psychology has confirmed that visualization can enhance success in everyday life, making it a valuable tool for those interested in motivation, self-help, and self-improvement. But the reasons why visualization improves the psychology of success are more practical and pragmatic than followers of Freudian psychology or popular self-help movements would have us believe. Here are the top three reasons visualization enhances success and self-improvement:

1) Visualization improves confidence

Research in the field of positive psychology shows that simply thinking about an event makes it seem more likely that it will actually happen. As you think about an event, you begin to build mental scenarios of how it might happen, and more importantly, how you could *make* it happen. The result is often increased confidence, and self-improvement occurs through a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” The psychological process is simple:

Visualization => Trust ==> Action ==> Results ==> Success

2) Visualization increases motivation

Visualization increases motivation and confidence, making self-help and self-improvement more effective. As your dreams for the future seem more likely, you become more motivated to initiate and sustain action.

Setting goals is often a very rational, even “dry” element of one’s efforts to improve oneself. But envisioning your desired future is a very different psychological process, making abstract goals very tangible and concrete in your mind. This process involves both your emotions and your thoughts and generates a real emotion that motivates self-improvement.

Visualizing your future also makes you aware of the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. The result is increased motivation for self-improvement, as you strive to close the gap between your future ambitions and your current reality.

3) Visualizing is a form of practice

This is the most important reason visualization enhances success, but the one most often overlooked in self-help and self-improvement books. Like any type of practice, visualizing a behavior makes you more skilled and successful when it comes time to engage in that behavior. Also, visualized behaviors can be practiced faster, easier, and more often than the actual behavior; that’s part of the reason world-class athletes regularly supplement their actual practice sessions with regimens of psychologically focused visual practice.

Visualization is also routinely used in psychology and self-improvement because it’s great for practicing behaviors that are too scary, intimidating, or even dangerous to perform in person. For example…

Salespeople who fear rejection perform better and are more motivated if they visualize dealing with and recovering from rejection.

Psychotherapists routinely ask patients to visualize themselves facing their fears and anxieties as a way to help them confront those fears.

Recovering alcoholics can begin to practice their skills in resisting temptation by visualizing themselves facing and resisting tempting situations such as parties or restaurants.

In each case, it’s clear how visualization allows you to practice your success skills, making self-help and self-improvement more effective.

==> Display tips for maximum performance

Of course, visualization should be a supplement to actual practice, not a replacement. But if done correctly, it can make actual practice even more effective and begin to foster a psychological success mindset. If done incorrectly, it can even hurt performance. To incorporate visualization into your self-improvement and motivation efforts in the most effective way, just keep these three principles in mind…

1. Correct display

Visualization only improves success if you visualize the appropriate behavior. On the other hand, visualizing incorrect or ineffective behavior creates the wrong psychological mindset, impairing performance and minimizing success.

It sounds obvious, but this principle of visualization psychology is often violated, particularly by novice athletes. For example, someone who has just started playing basketball can certainly visualize themselves shooting free throws, but because they haven’t had much training or training, they are likely to visualize the wrong things (for example, not bending their knees, not follow through). As a result, visualization has been shown to hinder the success of novice athletes. But many studies have shown that experienced athletes, using proper form and technique, will benefit from visualization, because they are likely to visualize the right things.

The bottom line: If you’re new to a sport or other activity, maximize your success by skipping viewing for now. Instead, your best path to success and self-improvement is to focus on actual practice, learning from qualified artists, taking lessons, training, etc.

2. Distributed visualization

Visualization increases success and self-improvement most effectively when visualization sessions are spread out over time, rather than “clustered” into fewer and longer sessions. This is true for any type of practice or preparation. For example, in preparing for a test, short study periods spread out over time (eg, one hour a night for four nights) lead to better results and more success than cramming (eg, four hours in one night). The “a little practice over many days” advice commonly offered by self-help books is definitely not self-help snake oil.

3. Accurate visualization focused on the means, not the ends

Visualization must be accurate, vivid, and detailed to be an effective tool for improving motivation and success. Self-help and self-improvement books often encourage people to envision broad goals, such as “become richer” or “be less afraid.” Although this can temporarily boost confidence and motivation, this is one case where many popular self-help and self-improvement books often lead people in the wrong direction. Visualizing the “ends” (what your life would be like if you achieved your goals) is not the most effective approach because it does not provide the many benefits of the practice.

Instead, research in positive psychology shows that visualizing the “means” instead of the “ends” leads to greater personal growth; Documented benefits include reduced anxiety, more effective planning, and increased success. For example, don’t imagine “having a great sales year.” Instead, a better strategy for success and self-improvement is to imagine yourself going to specific sales meetings, your actions at those meetings, the reactions of others, and how you will specifically overcome obstacles and persist in the face of rejection. Use all of your senses: As you imagine the actions of others, consider how they might dress and the sounds of their voices. In short, self-improvement requires visualizing how you achieve self-improvement, rather than what it will feel like to have achieved your self-improvement goals.

When visualization was used successfully as a psychological tool with the 1976 US Olympic ski team, for example, precision, detail, and a focus on the “means” were crucial to the process. The skiers focused less on their eventual gold medal success and instead envisioned themselves sprinting down the entire course, experiencing every bump and turn in their minds. That team met with unexpectedly strong success, and accurate visualization has been a standard psychological tool in the training of Olympians ever since. You can use these same principles to improve your own motivation, self-improvement, and success.