Why You Need To See Through Your Mind’s Eye

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One of the points I mentioned in the post Yes! You Can Be Successful And Wealthy Too is See the life. In this article, I will be expanding a little more on why seeing the life you want to live or have is absolutely crucial.

Dream big

Have you ever been inspired to dream big? Perhaps you are wondering: what at all does it mean to do that—dream big? Well, the idea of Dream big, which was written by New York Times bestseller Bob Goff and popularized by the song dream big by Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand, seeks to trigger your imagination to make you construct a life that is bigger than oneself and try to instill the belief that you can attain that life. Complicated? I hope not. Nonetheless, let me break it down further by putting it mildly this way: to dream big is merely to stimulate the eyes of your mind and see through them.

Your mind’s eye is so powerful

Seeing through your mind’s eye is very powerful because you move from a place of simply thinking to a world of imagination where impossible things become possible and more importantly achievable. When you see through your mind’s eye, you are immediately transported from wherever you may be into a dream world where the only limits are the ones you set for yourself. There is a certain kind of freedom in that world which allows you to see new possibilities which you’d otherwise be unable to grasp. Such is the capability of the mind’s eye. You can go ahead and call your mind’s eye a teleportation device—yes, because that’s exactly what it does!

Whatever goals you want to achieve in life, it is always important to see it at least with your mind’s eye first. Whether it’s about owning a business or getting a degree from a prestigious college or starting a family or becoming an inventor, doctor, teacher, accountant, lawyer, businessman, social media influencer, top executive of a fortune 500 company or whatever, it is necessary to see it with your mind’s eye first. Don’t attempt anything just because you saw someone do it or heard someone tell you you can do it. Always make sure you can see it first! Never compromise on this because:

1. Seeing is believing

As cliché as it may sound, it is true: seeing is believing. Evidently, you may not be seeing with your naked eye but you will with your mind’s eye which is more critical anyway. Most of the fantastic or thrilling things we enjoy and use in this world, were first seen by the mind’s eye. Think of the mobile phone or computer you are using to read this now. It was first imagined before it was made. The obvious point here is this: if you cannot see it, you cannot do it. Let me ask you this: if you can’t see whatever you want to achieve, what will you be achieving?

Yes, the answer is nothing!

To avoid chasing nothing and ending up with nothing, make sure you see first. If you want to be a doctor, for instance, see yourself in those white or blue overalls, see yourself talk to patients and take feedback from them; see yourself perform surgeries and see yourself very successful at it. Same applies for you if you want to be a businessman, engineer, developer or … (fill in the blank). See yourself in those shoes and living that life first, before you even think of attempting it. Why?

2. Seeing generates courage for action

This is what many people don’t realize. As a result, several people do not move past daydreaming. In fact, a lot of people are caught up with thoughts of what life could have, should have or would have been for them but they are never able to reach for those things they dreamed for themselves. The reason for that is simple—they did not see themselves in that life.

What are you really seeing?

To see is not just to catch yourself in a passing thought. No! To see is to sufficiently imagine yourself in a specific context and go over it again and again till it is inseparable from your reality. Difficult? Let me come again. Say, you dream of becoming a football super star like Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi. It is not as easy as just saying I want to be like Ronaldo or Messi. No! You have to go ahead and imagine walking in those shoes. Imagine yourself walk out from the tunnels in front of thousands of fans—some of whom have travelled from across the globe just to watch you. See yourself hearing your name announced through the giant stadium speakers, take pictures with your team mates before the game, receive your first pass of the game and then later go on to score a winning goal. See yourself celebrate with the fans after the ball enters the net. You have to be able to give yourself a full experience all through your mind’s eye and enjoy how it makes you feel. That’s what seeing is like.

You have to do that because it’s going to do something for you that you will not immediately realize until it’s too late. What will it do? I’ll tell you. It’s going to provoke a reaction to act towards that dream. You will get an influx of energy that will almost feel like you’re being pushed towards that dream and if you don’t resist, it will keep building up. This build up is what some people may call courage. Once courage, born out of belief in the impossible, is established, action to achieve that dream becomes inevitable.

3. Seeing produces strength to persevere

Dreams are not achieved through courage alone. No, you need perseverance too. What is perseverance? The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines it as the quality that allows someone to continue trying to do something even though it is difficult. Oh yes, pursuing one’s dream can be very arduous. I can guarantee you that when courage nudges you into following your dreams and you take up that challenge, you will face difficulties. However, it is important to note that the difficulties are not there to make you give up. Not at all!

Lean into your difficulties

First, difficulties will strengthen your resolve. For example, if you decide to become a top executive at a fortune 500 company, you have only made a decision to do just that. In the absence of any obstacle to test how resolute you are, that decision is not set in stone for you and you can easily lose your goal. But, one of the early difficulties you will face will ensure you become completely resolute and never look back, only forwards.

They say when the going gets tough, the tough keep going. Challenges will toughen you up. It will make your skin thick, impervious to failure. That’s just because failure at the level of big dreams is inevitable and every obstacle will remind you of that. Powering through challenges adds character to your pursuit and reassures you of being on the right track.

Difficulties shape us in different ways as we persevere through them and they definitely help us to grow confident and become more motivated to achieve our dreams. It is necessary to persevere through challenging times because it makes the rewards taste even sweeter and you should be able to see this too!

4. Seeing helps you avoid distractions

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.“

Lewis Carroll

The path to success is littered with many distractions that can cost you time or undo a lot of hard work. Seeing all the way to the place you want to be, will allow you to overcome many of these distractions. Let me bring this to the fore as we discuss distractions and focus. For every road you choose, there are a set of items or activities that will be considered a distraction for you. Take clubbing for one. It will hardly be a distraction if I want to be the owner of a night club. Also, it won’t be a distraction if it’s a means to an end. For example, blowing off steam to focus on what matters to my dream. Nonetheless, when clubbing is all I do while my dream is unattended, then I have an actual distraction on my hands.

Whereas we can repurpose items or activities that may otherwise be a distraction for our benefit (read Redirect Your Distractions For Accelerated Success for more), it is important to see exactly where you are headed and have a clear mental picture of the road to your destination to effectively identify and avoid distraction traps that can set you off course.

5. Seeing allows you to take stock

This is what I call measure the walk. You see, when you know where you are headed and it’s so clear in your mind’s eye, it becomes much easier to measure the walk. Progress when measured can translate into inspiration, motivation, action or even excitement. Point is, seeing your destination will lead you to the right decisions and help you make the right calls to enhance your progress.

Think of it this way. If your dream is to be the holder of a world record in say a 100m-sprint race and you know the current record is 9.58 seconds but you are currently at 10.1 seconds, then you realize exactly how much more effort to put in without getting discouraged because you started from 15.9 seconds. You can easily be excited about where you are, plan for where you see yourself and be inspired by the simple fact that you’ve made it that far.

Never underestimate the power of the mind’s eye

To conclude, I would like to leave it here that you should never underestimate the power of seeing with your mind’s eye. Many who have failed to realize this power have not achieved their dreams, and have ended up regretting a lot of their decisions when the sun starts to set on their lives. Those that have used this power have been able to achieve so much, some of them have become legends today.

Now, it’s your turn and I trust the timing couldn’t have been any better. What are you going to do?