Visualise to make it real
Dr Tom Mulholland is an Emergency Department Doctor and GP with over 25 years’ experience in New Zealand. He’s currently a man on a mission, tackling health missions around the world.
The sun rises for me in 2017 over Cuvier Island, east of Coromandel and Great Barrier Island. The crew are asleep, recovering from a sloppy passage through Colville channel the day before. I’ve visualised this day and this view many times before; now the camera takes a photo that has been in my mind for years. The dream has become a reality. In the rollercoaster of life not all things go our way. It’s how we deal with setbacks and adversity that count. The sun can rise in a new chapter of your life if you can visualise exactly what you want, and put the steps in to make it happen. Living on a boat, for some, is an opportunity that has come out of the Auckland property price crisis, myself included. Visualisation is a powerful tool and can be used in many ways. You may want to visualise the car or house you want. The colour, the design, the feeling of satisfaction of getting there can send a warm glow just like the sunrise over Cuvier Island. In sport, you may visualise the goal you kick, the wicket you take, or the basket you shoot. One study of basketballers compared those warming up with a 100 free throws pre-game to those who sat in the locker room and visualised 100 free throws pre game. Those who never touched a ball pre-game consistently scored higher in the real game. Why? Because those who sat in the locker room, never missed. In their minds, every shot got nothing but the net. Those who practised for real pregame, missed a few shots, putting doubt into their minds.
A few days and bays later, I met a retired couple on another boat at Great Barrier Island. I had met them years ago when they were working hard at growing their own business. They both retired more than 10 years ago – at the age of 40. Ignoring any sense of envy of not having to work after 40, I wanted their story. At age 18 they had visualised being rich and had set out to do it. Soon the pair realised that visualising being rich was not what they actually wanted, it was to be free. So they visualised being debt-free, mortgage-free, and free to roam and travel the planet. The couple saved hard and invested in ways to make passive revenue while they travelled around. It only took them 20 years to achieve their visualised goal.
Do you want to be rich or free, or both? Visualise what you want, where you will be, and how it will feel and even taste and you have yet another tool in your well and good toolbox. However, a vision without action is just a hallucination. How much do you really want it? What will you sacrifice, endure, or suffer to reach that vision?
In the rollercoaster of life not all things go our way. It's how we deal with setbacks and adversity that count