Lifestyle Mastery Boxed Set

by Scott Allan

  Techniques for the Visual Artist

  “Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture.”

  — Norman Vincent Peale

  Applying the process of visual imagination requires steps of action. Here are effective techniques you can apply right away in order to start working these changes into your life.

  I would suggest putting aside at least twenty minutes per day. If possible, try to do three sessions at twenty minutes each. Then, focus on a specific technique for at least one week. Take a look at the results and if you think it’s working, continue it into the second week. You may have to experiment before settling on your favorite exercise and the one that produces the best results.

  The Visual Artist

  Drawing, painting, or sketching your visions is an excellent method for producing powerful results, defining your dreams in colors and concise detail. Many people, even if they can’t paint or draw very well, favor this method, as it adds depth and significance to goals, enhances dreams, or furthers the advancement of a lifelong career.

  Through sketching or painting the images, the mental image of what you desire becomes more life-like and richer in depth with enhanced clarity. A friend of mine whose passion was traveling always sketched pictures of the places she wanted to go, and eventually she found herself on an adventure, visiting those famous sites.

  Feel free to sketch, paint, airbrush, or use colored pencils or crayons. On paper or canvas, transfer the image of something you desire to have or experience. This might be a place you want to visit, something you want to experience, or something you wish to attain.

  The Image Writer

  Using a technique I call image writing, you are going to commit to writing two pages a day for thirty days. To get started, buy yourself a clean notebook and go to work. By setting a goal to write two pages a day, you will flush your system by applying to paper anything that’s in your mind. Instead of holding your thoughts, ideas, and troubles inside of you, put them on the page.

  Image writing is an effective technique for problem solving, brainstorming, and creating and discovering new ideas that you never knew existed. If it weren’t for this commitment, I probably never would have gotten around to writing this book, because a lot of the material in these pages came from years of writing down every little idea and thought I had on a daily basis. After several years of doing this, I now have dozens of small notebooks filled with enough material for a dozen more books.

  Commit to writing every day for at least one month. Don’t take any days off. First, find the best time of day for writing. Is it first thing in the morning, late at night, when everyone else has gone to bed, or during your coffee break in the middle of the day?

  Once you have found the most convenient time and a comfortable place, start writing and don’t stop. Write continuously until you have emptied your mind completely of the stuff that has been floating around.

  Write about the visions you have been having, the dreams you are pursuing, or the obstacles and roadblocks you have to overcome. You can write about anything, because nobody is going to see it except for you.

  After thirty days, go back and review the notes you have taken. Is there a pattern to your thoughts and visions? Is there anything you have written that surprises you? After doing this for thirty days, you will have formed a solid habit of writing that is going to help you immensely with controlling and expanding your visions.

  If you miss a day, just move your thirty days ahead by one day. Use a calendar and mark off every day that you complete your journal.

  The Musical Visionary

  Have you ever listened to a song or piece of music and immediately felt compelled to do something? Does music help you visualize and spark your imagination? For most people it does, because music is a powerful medium for visualization. Music stimulates the imagination, and the more you appreciate the music you are listening to, the more stimulated and creative you become.

  The type of music you choose to listen to has a powerful effect on your feelings and energy, and can control the direction of your visions. The vision that you want to work on must be supported by the right kind of music, depending, once again, on what it is you want.

  Set aside ten minutes each day for this exercise. Now, think about a goal you have, preferably one that is long-term and far out of reach at the moment. Depending on what your goal is, select a piece of music that gets you thinking about it. Have you chosen something loud and with a fast beat or tempo, or something soft, intense, and emotional?

  I listen to music every day, and at certain times of the day, I select themes that stir my imagination into action. Be sure that the music you choose is in line with the vision you desire to build. Music is great for creating an atmosphere of emotion for your visual imagination.

  Positive Affirmation Session

  An affirmation is a form of internal reprogramming designed to erase or record over the internal recordings you have been listening to unconsciously for most of your life. Some examples of affirmations are:

  I can handle any difficult situation with serenity and confidence, seeking the best solution that is fair and just.

  My life is in the right place and I am where I need to be to learn, grow, and make the progress necessary for the advancement of my destiny.

  There isn’t any difficulty or situation that I cannot handle, no problem is too big, and as long as I stay positive and in the now, I trust I will do the right thing.

  I lack for nothing. I have all that I need to be happy and I am completely satisfied.

  I am an honest, confident, capable person with compassion for all things.

  I am the master of my destiny, the creator of my world.

  All difficult people and situations are there to make me a stronger and better person.

  Create a list of affirmations

  Start to compile a master list of affirmations by writing down positive statements about yourself, your life and about other people. Add one new affirmation to this list every day.

  Eventually you may have a list of well over a thousand affirmations. That is a lot of positive reprogramming! I suggest ending each of your sessions by repeating, either verbally or mentally, several of these affirmations. Believe the words of power you are speaking and feel the emotional strength behind them.

  Forty-Five Minute Power Tri-Combo

  Now that we have taken a look at some of the techniques and exercises associated with practicing daily visualization techniques, it is time to review a short program that I call the Forty-Five Minute Power Tri-Combo.

  How it works is simple, but for it to be truly effective, you have to practice it at least three times a week. Using the visual exercises suggested, you are going to put together a short daily program that includes doing three of these activities for fifteen minutes.

  Suggested Program

  Set aside forty-five minutes of the day. Now, for the next forty-five minutes, you are going to perform three of the above exercises in consecutive order, without taking a break. Here is what my program might look like:

  1. The image-writing technique: For fifteen minutes, I write down any thoughts, ideas, or images that come to mind. This is great for flushing out your thoughts and paving the way for the next exercise. Only write for fifteen minutes and then begin the next exercise.

  2. The visual meditation exercise: Do this exercise as described in this chapter. Choose a situation or event you see yourself in and apply your visual images to create the experience. Can you visualize where you will be in ten years, what you will be doing, and the person you will have developed into? Are you retired, or have you changed careers? Are you living the life you have always imagined? See it, feel it, believe it—and then live it.

  3. The musical visionary: I like to end my session with a piece of music that fits my vision. This could be a classical piece or
a song that inspires you. You might want to choose the song before you start your session, or you can spend a couple minutes searching for it right after your mediation is finished.

  Another alternative is to play a piece of music while you are performing visual meditation. This often helps to form stronger images during the visual meditation process. If you do these two together, as some people like to do, you should consider this one activity. You will still have to finish off your tri-combo with one more activity, either sketching/painting/coloring or some other creative activity related to your vision.

  You can try different combinations and mix up the order of the exercises. Some days you might decide to do only two exercises for twenty minutes each and that is perfectly fine—whatever works for you on that particular day.

  Try this at least three times a week if you can’t do it every day. Make this one of your greatest habits. It could become the most important forty-five minutes of your day.

  Optimum Visualization

  Optimum visualization is a very powerful and effective technique. How it works is simple, but applying it to create results is challenging. This is what I refer to as the fast track method for achieving results with the highest rate of efficiency. What it requires is absolute concentration and dedication of all your mental resources.

  How it Works

  Begin by imagining something you want to achieve. It can be a goal, a project you want to start or complete. Whatever it may be, think about it right now. Think of nothing else but this one thing that you desire to accomplish.

  Imagine the actions you need to take in order to have this one thing. Think about those actions and visualize them as you would the rungs on a ladder. See yourself climbing this ladder, and every rung you climb is another action that takes you closer to your goal.

  Concentrate and focus on your goal for ten minutes. You can start with a short session and work your way up from there. Think about nothing else except for this one thing. Treat it as if it is everything, as if it is your life’s work. If you suddenly find yourself thinking about something else, just let it happen. Acknowledge that another completely unrelated thought has entered your space and then let it go. You can invite it back in later, but for now, just think about what you want to manifest.

  By focusing on this and thinking of nothing else but what you want to create, you are directing all your present mental forces into this visual creation and feeding the imagination with a stream of positive energy. This is a form of laser-focused concentration that has massive potential to turn a dream into reality when directed with purpose.

  Next, believe that your vision has been created. See yourself as existing with this reality as if you have succeeded. If it’s a new house, what do you see inside?

  If it’s a trip around the globe, where do you see yourself journeying? If it’s a top position in the company of your choice, how do you imagine your ideal workday? Take in all the details. Fill your mind with the good stuff and paint the picture as big and bright and real as you possibly can.

  Try optimum visualization for at least ten minutes a day. If you have the time, a thirty-minute session is recommended at least three times a week. Keep in mind that this is a form of meditation that requires your absolute commitment of concentrated mind energy. If you just do it whenever you feel like it, or once in a while, the results will be minimal.

  The challenge is to try this for twenty-eight days. Start off slow, in ten-minute increments, and build to performing at longer intervals. Your goal is to eventually do this for one hour. Once you are able to sit through a full session and concentrate fully on succeeding in one area of your life, you will have built a solid foundation for personal excellence.

  Visualization Action Plan

  Simply visualizing isn’t enough. You need to take your deepest passions and put them into action by building solid intentions around everything you want to create. In order to do this, you can:

  Use visual meditation for twenty minutes each morning. Visualize the exact reality you want to experience in the future.

  Repeat positive affirmations at the start of each day and again when the day is winding down.

  Create a master goal for your life. Spend twenty to thirty minutes each day imagining the success of this goal. See it in your mind’s eye as having already been achieved.

  Play inspirational music to keep you inspired and motivated. As you listen to the music, visualize the activities you are performing that take you closer to fulfilling your vision.

  Practice optimum visualization technique to accomplish amazing results! Plan at least three sessions a week.

  Start a visionary journal or blog and record your thoughts and visions on paper. This enhances your experience of the creative visualization process.

  Create a visual storyboard. You can draw, paint or use pictures to create a collage of your vision.

  Build your master vision. Using all of the techniques found in the book or other resource material, continue to build the vision for your life. See yourself as you want to be tomorrow, next year, and in two decades. Apply the power of your visual imagination to making all your dreams come true.

  Try the Forty-Five Minute Power Tri-Combo by putting together a set of three visualization activities to enhance your imagination. This can include music, meditation, reading, deep thinking, or writing. Try three activities, back to back, for fifteen minutes each.

  Write down any negative images that come to mind. Next to those images, write in the positive image that will replace it.

  In the next section, you will learn how to build a complete goal portfolio. Our goals play a major role in the direction our lives take and will put you on the path to living the destiny of dreams.

  Do you have a plan for the next ten, twenty or thirty years?

  If you don’t, it’s never too late to start building one.

  SECTION III:

  Goals — Blueprints for Building Success

  “You control your future, your destiny. What you think about comes about. By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands—your own.”

  — Mark Victor Hansen

  Pillars of Destiny

  “When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.”

  — W. Clement Stone

  A goal is a clearly defined statement of what we desire to be and achieve. Goals are the blueprints for success and the building blocks to fulfilling your ultimate dreams. They have the momentum to carry you to places you could only dream about, helping you to achieve substantial results over a long period of time.

  A focused goal can transform a simple idea into a multi-million dollar business. It can take a mundane existence and give it purpose, or materialize a dream into reality in just a matter of months. When you create a portfolio of clearly defined goals, this becomes your concrete plan of action for the future.

  People with goals are focused, motivated, and opportunistic. People without goals usually end up drifting, wondering what life has in store for them, and they are rarely satisfied.

  We have a tremendous storehouse of energy just waiting to be unleashed. The goals you establish for your life become the triggers to unleashing this energy.

  Getting Started

  Knowing precisely what you want is the first step to making it happen. Once you set your sights on a target, you commit your goals to paper by writing them down and making them real. Then, you will design a plan for success to take you through to the ultimate outcome.

  Goal setting has been around for thousands of years, so it’s nothing new. But how many people do you know who actually follow through with their goals? How many of your friends, co-workers, or family members have a set of well-defined goals?

  How many people do you know who have any kind of plan for their life at all? If you are like me, you know ver
y few. Why? If we know we should be setting goals to create the destiny of our choice, why aren’t we doing it?

  Set Your Boundaries.

  One of the chief defining characteristics of people who succeed at winning and achieving goals is the ability to set and stick to boundaries. If we have no boundaries for our goals, we are leaving the door wide open for anyone to walk in and interrupt our focus or steal our time. Your ability to set and stick to specific boundaries is paramount in crushing your goals.

  How comfortable are you at telling someone, “No, I can’t do that right now. I already have another commitment, and I have to stick to it.” If you are like many people, you drop everything when someone you know asks you for something. There urgency becomes your priority.

  We have to know where to draw the boundary when it comes to our friends, family, or people in the workplace. When you say “Yes” to something, you are saying “No” to something else. Protecting your time can be critical when you don’t have much of it.

  Be prepared for resistance when you block the people who don’t understand your drive or the motivation behind your actions. They might label you as rude or selfish. If you try to please everyone by doing everything as soon as it lands at your feet, you become a reactive machine, opening the door every time someone has an issue and comes knocking.

  Set your boundaries and you will be one of those people that gets your goals finished. What is even better is, you will feel more in control of your life by choosing what to say yes to. People won’t like your choices but that is just the way it is. Drawing a line and letting people know where they stand in relevance to your time will give you greater confidence and a feeling of empowerment.

  People who set boundaries fail far less than those who don’t have any boundaries at all. It’s not just the achievement of a goal that matters most—it is the person you become and the positive changes that transform you by reaching this goal. Achieving the outcome is only part of it. What really matters is who you become when you get there, as well as the skills you develop and the character traits that are strengthened.