Visualizing for success: Focus on processes more than outcomes

Visualization is a widely used strategy for people whose goal is to achieve success in an endeavour. Sports, finances, career, and relationships are just a few of the domains in which this strategy has been used to facilitate success.

Although visualizing has been found to facilitate success in achieving goals, it is important to spend most of the time visualizing in a manner which is most conducive to success and spend less time visualizing in a manner which is less conducive to success. In the following sections, I will explore this topic.

Visualizing outcomes

Visualizing outcomes entails picturing in your mind you having accomplished your goal. Examples included imagining yourself at the finish line of a marathon, receiving your university or college diploma, being congratulated for being elected to political office, and sitting in a chair marked ‘CEO’ of the business you have built.

Visualizing processes

Visualizing processes entails picturing in your mind the steps you must take to accomplish your goal. Referring to the examples from the previous section, this would entail imagining yourself training for the marathon and running each of the 26.2 miles, doing the work necessary to get elected to political office (such as giving campaign speeches and talking with voters), and taking the steps required to build your business.

The relative benefits of visualizing outcomes versus visualizing processes

Visualizing outcomes has been found to be much less conducive to success than has visualizing the processes which lead to those outcomes. Visualizing outcomes can play a role in achieving goals, particularly in generating the motivation necessary to work toward those goals. However, relying on this type of visualization is typically insufficient to take steps toward goal achievement.

So, although imagining yourself finishing a marathon or winning an election or heading a business empire may spur you to work toward achieving these goals, this type of visualizing by itself is unlikely to lead you to achieve these goals.

In contrast, visualizing processes has been found to be pivotal to success in achieving goals. The reason is that mentally rehearsing the steps you need to take toward achieving goals helps you to take those steps.

Using the examples from the previous section, visualizing yourself training for the marathon and running each of the 26.2 miles would make it more likely that you would take these necessary steps toward completing the marathon. Similarly, visualizing yourself doing the work necessary to get elected to political office such as giving campaign speeches and talking with voters would make it more likely that you would take these necessary steps toward becoming elected. Finally, visualizing yourself doing the work necessary to build your business would make it more likely that you would take these necessary steps toward overseeing a successful business.

How to combine visualizing outcomes with visualizing processes

Visualization practice should feature a combination of visualizing outcomes and visualizing processes. Visualizing outcomes is often useful in determining which goals you would like to pursue. The degree of excitement you feel when you imagine having achieved a goal can guide you toward setting goals.

For example, if you experience a great deal of excitement when imagining yourself playing the piano in front of an audience but you have little excitement when you imagine yourself running a successful business, this suggests that setting a goal to play the piano makes more sense than setting a goal to start your own business.

Once you have selected a goal to pursue, you can periodically visualize the outcome of having achieved your goal to remind yourself of the excitement which led you to begin working toward this goal. This can be helpful when your motivation to continue working toward your goal is lacking.

After selecting a goal, visualizing processes which lead you toward its achievement should comprise most of your visualization practice time. This can include mentally rehearsing the steps you intend to take to move you toward the achievement of your goal as well as imagining yourself executing the elements of a particular practice or training session.

For example, after I set the goal to learn to play the piano I regularly visualize the steps which will help me achieve this goal. These steps include practicing on my own, attending lessons with my teacher, and playing pieces in front of a group music performance class. I also visualize successfully executing the components of my practice sessions such as performing technical skills and playing pieces which I will perform at examinations.

An excellent discussion of the relative benefits of visualizing outcomes and processes appears in Motivation Myth Busters by Drs. Wendy Grolnick, Bejamin Heddy and Frank Worrell.

May you use visualization in a manner that is most conducive to achieving your goals,

-Dr. Pat