How do you evolve from the reality staring you in the face to the vision of how you want your life to be? Begin by visualizing the outcome long before it ever happens. Say to yourself, “It’s possible that this positive outcome could happen...even though it isn’t happening now.” Think in the future tense and visualize the goals as already having been accomplished. Permit yourself to feel the feelings as if the dream were happening now. Focus more on the end result, and don’t let your mind get bogged down with how it will happen. The only thing that can suppress growth is if you are locked into your present reality so strongly that your vision of what you really want cannot overcome it.
 
It is normal to feel this battle waged within your psyche: reality versus vision. No, vision versus reality. As long as reality is on top, growth is stifled. When vision wins out, change is effected.
 
How do you keep the vision stronger than the reality? With affirmations.
 
An affirmation is a trigger tool, a statement of belief written in present tense and repeated as if the goal were already an accomplished fact. This is not “airy fairy” make-believe. The principle and efficacy of affirming your vision has been validated by such people as Dr. Albert Bandura of Stanford University, by Lou Tice of the Pacific Institute in Seattle, by Dr. Charles Garfield at the Performance Sciences Institute at Berkeley, and by Dr. Lou Tartaglia of the Tartaglia Mind Institute.
 
Here’s how it works: You visualize the new, and believe vehemently that what you see is possible. You can actually see yourself there. You gradually become dissatisfied with the way things are and begin to shed your former behavior. Affirmations keep you focused on your vision and on track to pursue your life’s purpose.

Attitude Is Key to Success
People fail in business not because success isn’t possible, but because they can’t picture themselves achieving prosperity through that particular medium. Usually fear holds them back: fear of failure, fear of what others might think, fear of approaching people, even fear of success. Learning to exercise control over our own attitudes is the key to life. When a relationship ends, we can choose to embrace the notion that we have been abandoned or that we have been released. When a business partnership is brought to an abrupt closure, we can elect to adopt the outlook that we have been rejected or that we have been freed to go on with our life.
Both viewpoints are open to us. The power is within us to choose our own attitudes. Sometimes it takes time to transition from the negative to the positive. The sooner we assume a confident belief about ourselves and how we will approach any situation, the faster we can move into a productive realm.
 
Disappointments come readily in business. Our attitude has to be one of appreciation for all the good that comes and not be held captive by the letdowns. In some ways, we need to develop the trust of a child. Like the boy playing Little League who told his dad, who arrived late, that they were behind by 14 to nothing.
 
“You don’t seem too discouraged!” his dad replied.
 
“Discouraged?” the boy asked with a puzzled look on his face. “Why should I be discouraged’? We haven’t been up to bat yet!”

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