What if we told you that success was simply a mental state?
Would you believe us?
U.S. Spy Natan Sharansky once spent 9 years in USSR jail, during which he would envision chess games against himself every day. After being released from jail in 1996, Natan went on to beat world champ Garry Kasparov in a game of chess.
That’s the power of envisioning.
If you consult psychologists, they suggest both visualization and envisioning techniques to empower your mind and sculpt your reality.
So, what’s the difference between vision and envisioning? Let’s explore.
What Is the Difference Between Vision and Envision?
By meaning, vision simply refers to the sense or ability of sight. If you can see yourself succeed, you can make that vision a reality.
So, what does envision mean then?
Envisioning is when you imagine certain events or outcomes like video game walk-throughs so you can effortlessly turn them into reality.
How does that differ from the visualization?
Visualization refers to creating visual aids that can accelerate learning and in turn, achieve your goals.
Here is a list of the techniques that relate to visualization in psychology:
- Create pictures representing your goals and place them in prominent positions around your home or workspace.
- Designing daily affirmations supported by powerful visual cues and programming them to appear on your mobile device or personal computer.
- Creating index cards to memorize complex or numerous details effortlessly and shuffling through them regularly.
In contrast, here is a list of envisioning techniques suggested by psychologists:
- Meditating on certain positive thoughts, ideas, or methods to internalize them.
- Envisioning your day in advance to avert potential threats and resolve predictable obstacles.
- Envisioning the favorable outcome of an event to enable its occurrence.
In simple words, the difference between vision and envisioning is within the technique.
For visualization techniques, you need to create imagery that supports your goals, just as Olympians do in mental training.
As taught by Vishen, founder of Mindvalley, the envisioning method involves meditation to look inward and create the right set of circumstances for your success. To learn more about how to create the life of your wildest dreams, check out Vishen Lakhiani’s life-changing Becoming Limitless program.
The more vivid your imagination, the more effective your envisioning technique will likely be. For instance, American football coaches make their teams watch their opponents at play. This can help them visualize strategies to overcome their opponents’ gameplay.
What Does Envisionment Mean?
Have you ever tried learning how to play an instrument by yourself?
Learning just one chord on the guitar without a visual aid could take hours. That’s why YouTube video lessons have become popular among amateur guitarists. With visual aid, anyone can learn how to play complex songs, irrespective of their level of training.
In the past, only a select few, who learned from the right mentors, could play at advanced levels.
When playing an instrument, conduct this simple experiment. Close your eyes and envision yourself playing the song or practice exercise before you do it physically. You’ll notice that the piece becomes a lot easier to play if you use the envisionment method.
So, What Exactly Does Envisionment Mean?
Envisionment means to imagine or picture.
According to research, we know that imagination can influence perception, and this perception is what shapes our world.
Our experience of the world depends on how we perceive it. The colors, shapes, and contexts we create entirely depend on our mental understanding of what we’re seeing.
Through envisionment, we can create our realities. We can program our minds to perceive the world in a manner that is advantageous to us. The more vivid this imagination, the more effective that envisioning is likely to be.
What Is The Significance Of Envisionment?
Through elaborate mental training, you can create a state of mind that’s beneficial for your performance both at work and in relationships. By envisioning certain emotions, objects, and scenarios, you can place yourself within a mental state wherein obstacles to high performance are few.
More entrepreneurs and business leaders today are attributing their success to envisioning techniques. Jeff Weiner, Arianna Huffington, and Jerry Seinfeld all swear that daily meditation and envisionment are what enable their mindset for growth and success.
Envisionment is also known to provide the following indispensable benefits:
- Confidence
- Insights
- Foresight
- Resilience
- Discipline
By building these benefits within you, envisionment will boost your performance and elevate the quality of your daily life.
Many of us are faced with metal blocks that are preventing us from reaching the goals that we’re chasing.
For instance, have you had a bad experience when driving? If you have, you may have noticed how this changes the way you drive. Through envisionment, you can mentally face your fear and overcome it to prevent the event from affecting your life long-term.
Similarly, you can use envisionment to overcome stage fright and the fear of socializing. All it takes is the re-creation of these events within your mind, with positive outcomes.
What Do You Envision?
Do you know who Jim Carrey, the comedian is? Of course, you do. Everybody does!
But there was a time when Jim Carrey was a “wannabe.” He had no fortune or opportunity. People didn’t see the potential that lay within him. But this didn’t stop Jim from believing in himself and envisioning success.
In 1997, Jim Carrey appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show and shared his rags-to-riches story.
Back when Jim didn’t have any acting work, he once wrote a cheque for $10 million for himself and dated it for Thanksgiving 1995. He carried the cheque to work every day until just before Thanksgiving in 1995 when he was told that he would be paid $10 million for his role in Dumb & Dumber.
So, what do you envision?
Envision anything that you wish to create.
If you’re searching for a specific process that you can use for envisioning, follow this 3 step guide:
1. Imagine yourself victorious
Plain and simple, imagine your victory.
Push your visualization beyond your past failures and current circumstances. Picture the details. Where are you when you’re victorious? Are you on the beach? Is it warm? What are you wearing? Who’s standing beside you?
The more details you embellish your imagery, the stronger it’s likely to be. Do your best to bring in all 5 senses. What does the beach breeze smell like?
Practice this every day and you’ll witness an amazing transformation.
2. Create a trigger-worthy visual aid
Ever had an incident that changed your life forever?
For instance, Nike founder, Phil Knight, visited the Temple of Athena Nike years before he named his company after it.
Do you have an awe-inspiring moment in your life? Take a memoir from it – say, a photo – and write something inspirational on it so you can carry it around as a visual aid of inspiration.
3. Feed your mind with positivity
It’s essential to have positive fuel to enable the success of your dreams.
Only relive the memories that made you smile unless the painful memories can inspire you to work somehow. Invest only in content that’s positive. Don’t cling on to memories and thoughts that can derail you from your path to success.
