recreatingreality.com

Simply put, write down your thoughts.  Just as the exercise with visualization helped us to recognize the difference between specific details and fuzzies, writing out your goals will help you crystallize your thoughts. 

The principle is the same.  Our thoughts are fragmented fuzzies, thousands of snippets passing through minds every second.  Let’s go back to the visualization of the little red convertible for a minute.  Remember that the car we passed on the highway was basically an idea.  Our brains registered  the color red, convertible, and maybe small.  It was not until we visited an automobile dealership that we decided on the color, the make and model, convertible vs. hardtop.  We did not get our other senses into play until we sat in the car … smell… or the sound of the motor until we test drove the car.  You get the idea.

It is the same with writing down our goals.  We can mentally think of a car, but when we write down the specifics of our goal we describe the “new car smell” or the leather seats or the purr of the motor.  There is a difference between the car we passed on the highway and the car that has become our goal.  The difference is in the details. 

When we write out the specifics in detail and add the perception of the smell, the touch, the feel, the sounds, it becomes real.  It is no longer a fuzzy.  It becomes yours.  You “own” the smell, the sounds and so forth.

Once your thoughts are crystallized, committed to paper, you have reinforcement.  Can you realize the difference between seeing the flash of a red convertible pass you on the highway and a written goal of getting a new red car versus the picture of the car you decided on at the dealership, the brochure with the picture and specs of the car, the sensory sensations of smell, touch, and sound, and a written goal that jogs your memories of the car and details the specifics?  One is a passing wish.  The other is a goal that motivates you into action.

If you have not written out your goal(s), it is strongly suggested that you practice visualization and crystallizing your thoughts by committing them to paper. 

Okay, so I know there are those readers who are thinking these steps are something you would do with a child, not an adult.  Well, for those of you who have children I will only remind you that most of your children achieve their goals.  They are focused on what they want.  They have pictures pasted on the walls to remind them, to reinforce them.  But, somehow as we grow into adulthood we lose the ability to dream, to stretch beyond our comfort zones, and to visualize.  We lock ourselves into a reality that amounts to settling for what you have and limiting what you want.  Perhaps, we should tap into the inner child that is alive within us.  That child is still alive within you.

Visualize and crystallize to know what you really, really, really want.