by William “Bill” Brashers, Ph.D., Featured Contributor
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]M[/su_dropcap]Y LAST FEW ARTICLES were focused on Visioning into the future. We’d like to address something a bit different this time.
Most leaders are serious about self-development. After all, our followers are always watching to see if we remain smart enough to keep leading. If they perceive we’re not—that we’ve stopped growing—they begin to wonder if it’s smart to keep following.
Too many people I’ve met apply the “drill instructor” model of self-development. First they yell at themselves when they mess up—even beat themselves up—and then try to improve using brute-force-willpower. Execute, Fail, Repeat.
Will-power is “a thing.” If you’ve cultivated your will for a long time, it’ll work for you. For most people these days, will-power has been neglected, and has become weak. Thankfully, there’s an alternative that actually works better.
Last time, we noted that Visions create Self-Fulfilling Prophecies. That’s the engine we’re going to put in motion. The fastest way to develop any feature in yourself is to spend 3 to 5 minutes every morning and evening picturing yourself perfect at whatever you need to improve. Every Olympic and professional athlete does it. It works. It also works in every part of life—like leadership. Just picture yourself perfect at the aspect of leadership you most need right now.
This is an exercise in self-programming, not self-delusion. There’s a big difference between visualizing perfection knowing you’re not, and thinking you’re perfect and being wrong. If you practice this just 3 to 5 minutes a.m. and p.m., in two weeks you’ll see a difference—you’ll rationalize it away. In four weeks, you won’t be able to rationalize it away. In two months, you’ll have made so much progress that you’ll think you’ve got it knocked, stop visioning, start to deteriorate, and remember I told you so. It’s like over-seeding a lawn—the “old grass” has roots that run deep. You need to help the “new grass” overcome the old. In three months, you’ll have improved so much, you can move on to envision other things to develop. Try it out until our next column. Have some fun with it.
