Visualize Your Success

Over the last several months, I competed in a Humorous Speech Competition through Toastmasters.  I won my club’s contest, our district and divisional contests and competed against the winners of the other area, district & divisional winners at the State level.  After I completed my speech at each contest and while the judges were tallying the results, I was taken up in front of the audience and interviewed by the MC. One of the questions I was asked was, “What advice would you have for someone who is nervous about speaking in front of a group.”  I knew the answer immediately- visualization.

Visualization is a powerful tool where you use your mind to visualize yourself performing whatever task it is that you are nervous about.  For this particular situation, it would be visualizing myself in front of the audience, giving my speech. I would visualize walking up in front of the audience and rolling right into my speech.  I would visualize pausing in the right places and waiting for laughter in the right places.  I would visualize the audience laughing and clapping as I finished my speech.  And I would do that time and time again until I had so thoroughly visualized my speech that when the day of the actual speech came, I would not be nervous at all.  Instead, giving the speech would be second nature to me because I had already “given” the speech so many times in my head.

Visualization can be a powerful tool for success.  Often, we are the biggest obstacles to our own success.  Too often, we aren’t prepared for something and we go in thinking we can wing it and get away with it.  Often, we slide through by the skin of our teeth and think we were successful.  But when you look back, were we really that successful?  The person who prepared and practiced and knew his material inside and out is always better and more convincing than the person who “winged it.”

Professional athletes do it.  Heck, Superbowl MVP Aaron Rodgers revealed during the Green Bay Packers remarkable Superbowl run that he owed a part of his success to visualization.   Rodgers told USA Today, “In the sixth grade, a coach taught us about the importance of visualization.  When I’m in a meeting, watching film or laying in bed before I go to sleep, I always visualize making those plays.”  It works for him, too.  Rodgers was nearly flawless in Superbowl XLV but he has been even more spectacular this season and is the presumptive favorite for the regular season MVP has he has led his team to a 13-0 record (as of this writing).

Visualization is not something that takes a lot of time or effort, but it is something everyone should do on a regular basis.  It’s like the old adage, “practice makes perfect.”  Practice does make perfect, but just practicing won’t rid you of your stage fright.  But visualization will.  Practice will make your more comfortable with your speech.  It will help you internalize the words and will help keep you from stumbling through your notes.  But only visualization can help you recreate the scene in your head.  The audience of eyes staring up at you.  The lights, hot on your face.  The dryness you get in your mouth and the tightness in your throat right before the words start to come out.  If you haven’t visualized these things happening prior to your speech, they can throw you off your game and leave you scrambling to recover.  But if you’ve visualized it ahead of time you know that if you take a deep breath and perhaps a sip of water that the only thing standing between you and a successful speech is yourself.  Practice AND visualize and your next speech will be a resounding success.

What are your thoughts on visualization?  Please let me know in the comments!