Do Or Do Not. There Is No Try.

If you have read some of my previous newsletters, you know that I am big on visualizations. I practice them every day, even several times a day. You may have heard the phrase “if you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” That is most likely the idea Yoda was trying to communicate in “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back”.
By using visualizations you can have more of a say in how you would like to live your life, what situation you would like to improve, or how you would like a future conversation with your boss to turn out, etc. Athletes use visualizations extensively. They actually envision themselves winning the race, beating their opponent or improving their time. It increases their confidence and their motivation.
An Australian psychologist, Alan Richardson, conducted a study using 3 groups of students at random who had never practiced visualizations before.
Group 1 practiced shooting basketball free-throws every day for 20 days.
Group 2 only practiced free throws on the 1st and 20th days.
Group 3 practiced free throws on the 1st and 20th AND practiced visualizing themselves making successful free-throws in their minds for 20 minutes every day for 20 days.

The results: Group 1 improved by 24%, Group 2 did not improve at all,
Group 3 who only practiced visualizations every day improved by 23%, almost as much as the first group. Interesting!