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“Our brain can’t tell the difference between what is real and what is visualised.”
I was amazed by this saying when I heard it. If we visualise what we want to achieve so vividly and so often that we could absolutely achieve it some day! When we visualise our dream/goal, subconsciously our brain will guide us to find a way to make it come true. Visualisation strengthens our belief and determination to achieve our dream/goal.
Craig Valentine, 1999 Toastmasters World Champion, once mentioned, he visualised so many times the scene where he was standing on the Contest stage and won the championship that he became so convinced he would definately win the Contest.
When I was preparing for the entrance examination for my postgraduate study to another top university, I visualised myself walking in the campus and studying in the classroom during my visit to the university despite that most of my college classmates laughed at me to have such a seemingly unachievable goal and they all doubted me. After I came back from the visit, I found I became so convinced that there’ll be no doubt I would study there the next year, and I became so determined that nothing stopped me from working hard to pass the exam. Everything paid off the next year. I finally walked in the campus as a student there and studying in its several classrooms.
The power of visualisation is beyond our imagination! It makes the future dream/goal come true in our mind first, then helps us achieve it physically by all means. If we truly believe it, we could make almost every dream/ goal come true.
Most of the times, our problem is that we ourselves limit our own belief in ourselves and what we can accomplish, isn’t it? How many of us dare to visualise the scene in which we are living in our dream/goal? Long before we visualise, we tell ourselves, ”Oh, forget it, it’s never gonna be achieved.” Or “don’t make fool of myself, it’s never gonna happen.”
What we do not know is that visualisation is the first step in achieving any dream/goal. It gives us faith and helps us find a way to achieve our dream/goal.
What is the dream/goal you crave to achieve? Close your eyes and visualise you are living in that dream/goal on a regular basis.
(Above is the picture of my university^_^)
Are all great ideas born completely out of one’s own independent thoughts? Does creativity solely rely on one’s intelligence? Take a look at Fredrik Haren’s book The Idea Book and you’ll get an answer.
I was lucky enough to get to listen to his talk and got a free copy of that book with his autograph! Wonderful. He mentioned some tips to getting creative ideas. I’d like to share with you two most impressive ones.
Ideas are based on a collection of information. The Idea Book itself is a good proof.
- First, the idea of writing this book came from Blue Ocean Strategy. You’ve got to find a niche market for your own thing.
His books were not sold in the bookstores, interestingly he sold them in the stationery stores as he designed the book in a way that it had half of the pages written with ideas and half with empty spaces, just like a notebook but with great ideas! No one wouldn’t love to buy such a notebook in a stationery store.
- Second, copy from the best.
Take a glimpse at the cover of this book, doesn’t it look like the cover of The Bible? Fredrik was inspired exactly by The Bible. That’s why he designed the cover of his book in that way.
Being creative and generating creative ideas is reachable, it comes from the information we’ve already had and the existing resources around us.
There are many ways to help us become more creative. Force ourselves to use the non-dominant hand is an effective way to develop the other hemisphere of our brain. Thus, our brain will be kept in full use and in preparation for creative thinking.
Switch the side of our mouse-pad is a good case. It’s easy to be integrated into our lives. I’m using the mouse with my left hand now.
I thought I would get confused at when I needed to click the left and the right buttons. It turned out to be not. I didn’t pay much attention to that, and it just happened naturally. The only difficulty is that I’m not very proficient in pointing to the object accurately. I seem like a handicapped girl.
It did make me working a little slowly. However, I believe it’s just a phase of adaption. I hope I can navigate the mouse with my left hand as effeciently as with my right hand in the near future. Let’s see and I’ll tell you more about my experience. You may have a try and share with me your feelings.
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