Visualization

The only way you’ll be able to succeed in what you want to do, is if you can see yourself doing it.

I played baseball all the way from my kid years to my college years. I loved the sport and hated the sport at the same time. The reason: it’s an extremely mental game. Yes, there are many physical abilities required to be successful, but those abilities are worthless if your mental game isn’t perfected.

For me, my mental game was the issue.

I struggled to believe in my abilities. I would have one bad outing and I would stagger for the rest of the season. I had such a hard time truly believing I had the ability to be successful.

Eventually I heard of visualization techniques. These techniques included sitting in silence for a fixed amount of time and envisioning yourself doing the exact thing you wanted to do in your head. Very similar to meditation, but more focused in thought.

I began to start doing this more and more often. I would do it on the bus trips before games. I had a certain playlist of songs I would listen to to hopefully get my mind to refresh that feeling of playing well.

It worked for some games, but then I had a couple bad games and that visualization was worthless.

I wondered how it was possible for my mental game to still be that unsuccessful in games when I could have so much confidence when I imagined myself playing. But the truth was, I didn’t have confidence when visualizing.

When I would sit in silence and imagine myself playing well, it felt like a dream. A dream that would never actually happen. I still lacked the confidence in my own ability, even though I tried to convince myself I had it.

YOUR IMAGINATION ISN’T THE BARRIER, YOUR BELIEF IN IT IS.

In my head, I could see myself doing it, but did I ever believe it could happen? No way.

Eventually the time came for me to be done playing. I had my fair share of successes and a great pile of failures as a baseball player. I never quite achieved what I wanted to, but I learned a few very crucial things about myself:

•I will only perform as well as my confidence lets me

•I need to believe in myself before anyone else does

•Do what works for you, not what works for others

My baseball career may have ended, but now I had a new project to work on. I could focus all of my attention on getting better at my mental game without the added pressure of the sport. It was time to win.

Over the next couple years, I did just that. I figured out all the reasons I questioned myself and began to question why I felt those things. Wherever I felt like I was falling short in life, I made a conscious effort to improve.

I felt like I wasn’t physically strong enough so I got bigger.

I felt like I wasn’t mentally tough enough so I got tougher.

I felt like I wasn’t smart enough so I got smarter.

Now I am just an old, washed-up, former college baseball player who plays softball. But now, when the time comes for me to make a big play, I come through. There is no difference in skill. There is no difference in ability. The difference is in my mind.

Before the play happens, I feel it happening. And this time, it isn’t a feeling I convince myself of. It is a complete visualization of what is going to happen, and I am 100% confident in it.

The reason I tell you this story is to help you realize it takes time to find that belief in yourself. Once you find it, it has to be maintained too. Just because I finally figured out how to believe in myself doesn’t mean I don’t have to continue working on it. I still do things every single day to prove to myself that I can.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO PROVE ANYTHING TO ANYONE BUT YOURSELF.

My biggest failure during my time playing baseball was not anything I ever did that made anyone else feel a certain way. My biggest failure was letting myself get down on myself time after time. My biggest failure was letting my confidence continuously take a hit because of what other people said about me.

I will not fail like that again.

If you want to perform better, fix the words you tell yourself.

You will only be as good as you believe you are.

Now when I walk out onto that field, I know I’ve got it. When a ball gets hit to me in center field and I see that runner rounding third, I don’t just dream of myself throwing him out, I believe it will happen, so it does.

Fix how you visualize yourself.

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Thank you for reading!

My goal is to inspire self-improvement in others through my personal stories and experiences.

This is The Exploration.