Visualization- the bridge between a Dream and a Mission

So now you know you're ready...but ready for what, exactly? Success? Well success isn't the kind of thing that is black-or-white, it comes in many shapes and sizes. Ultimately, you are the only one that can decide whether you have become a "success". It's important to begin by knowing the exact moment in your life when you can say "I've made it.

The importance of visualization:

Can you do anything without thinking about it? No. Every action you take involves some kind of thought, whether conscious or otherwise. For example, if you absent-mindedly set your car keys down somewhere and forget about it, you, on some mental level, made the decision to do so. A small part of you said, "I am tired of holding these keys", so you let them go. Now this is probably a negligible event, so the signal you had to send to make it happen was negligible as well. Your success will be the greatest thing to ever happen to you, so when you think about it, the signal you send out should be proportionally strong.

If you can't wrap your mind around something, if you can't truly see it in your mind's eye, you won't ever experience it. It is weird to think about the future in this way, I know, but you need to start feeling comfortable with putting the focus on your ultimate goals, and you need to start being positive about them. This positive energy will reflect back on you, and you will feel more attuned to successful opportunities. You may even start to notice some that have been right under your nose all along!

All action stems from thought. If you constantly have the image of your success in the back of your mind, the wheels of your subconscious will begin to turn, pointing you towards opportunities you might never have seen before.

When you can truly visualize yourself succeeding, you will know exactly what opportunities in your life will lead you there and will you feel more comfortable taking the risks to find them, having a concrete goal in mind.

Define Your Success:

(Read through this article, then go back and follow the instructions.)

In the last article, you made a rough sketch of what you want from your music career. Use that as guidance as you begin this process.

Okay so you know what you want...kind of, right?

Okay now the hard part: how are you going to go about attaining this dream? It's far too early to be detailed about this, you just need to know what sacrifice you are willing to make. What are you going to give the world in return for this success?

Now pinpoint your ideal music career-- something that offers you all of the things you want out of life, but which is within the bounds of the sacrifice you are willing to make. How does it make you feel to know you can live this dream? Describe the tactile sensation of the moment you will consider yourself successful. And more importantly, put a time limit on it. By when do you feel you need to achieve this goal?

Note: This isn't an exercise in being reasonable or realistic. This is about you stating your dream, and it should represent what you consider your ideal life.

Now we put this assortment of answers together to create what I am going to call a mission statement. Here is mine:

"By this day, 5 years from now, I will be able to make a good living by writing and performing music. I will have endless opportunities to perform for people who are truly moved by my music and what I have to say. In return for this, I will invest myself completely and wholeheartedly into my music education and into connecting with people, so one day I can touch their lives with the songs I write. I can truly feel success becoming more clearly visible every day. In the back of my mind, I can really see an audience in front of me, feel their energy reverberate through my body as I step on stage to give the performance of my life."

(UPDATE: After you have finished this process, go see "The Ultimate Mission Statement", for an even better method of documenting your path to success)

The most important part of this mission statement is the imagery, the last few lines in my case. This is because these are the lines that convey the emotion I will feel when I finally achieve my goals, and by thinking about them I activate my mind to think about these feelings. More on this in a second.

Now I am going to ask you to follow these directions, and if you follow them precisely, I think you will be incredibly happy with the results.

(By the way, this concept is discussed in Napoleon Hill's best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich. I have adapted it to apply to music, but if you would like to see where I got the idea for this method, check out the book. It is truly amazing.)

You will need to write your own mission statement on a small piece of paper, and keep that piece of paper with you at all times. At the very least, you should read your mission statement out loud twice a day, once as soon as you wake up (and can function) and once before bed. But when I say "read", you will not be just reading the words you write like you are reading this article.

The only way this exercise will benefit you in any way is if the reading is filled with emotion. That's why I stressed earlier how important the imagery is. This imagery stirs up the feelings in you of what it will be like to succeed, but on a smaller level.

An analogy: Think of this exercise as being "vaccinated" with success. You are exposing yourself to a weaker version of the feelings of what it will be like to succeed, and so down the line when the time comes, you will know instinctively how to handle good opportunities and push past misfortune.

When I read my mission statement myself, many images rush through my mind at once, and after I finish reading, I continue just think and visualize for a few minutes. The wording may seem kind of bland to someone else, but to me, it sparks all sorts of thoughts and emotions.

I begin by picturing myself where I am now, at music school in UNT. I see myself working hard as I have been, spending long hours in the practice room. I see myself during my first few weeks at Berklee this summer, learning and growing, adapting to a new environment. Soon after, I see myself feeling more free as a musician-- all the practicing is really starting to pay off. I feel like I can really express myself through my music without even trying. I start writing more songs, playing more shows, I see myself recording a few new songs in the studio. I start playing more shows, maybe get a weekly spot at a local club. I see myself recording my first album, playing in my first large concert. I go on my first tour, I experience cities I have never seen before. Then finally I end up at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. This is the most important part to me. This is when I will know I have succeeded. This is where I saw so many artists perform when I was growing up, and to perform there would be the most amazing experience. I take in what it would feel like to look out to the audience and see hundreds of people sitting out on the lawn in 100 degree houston weather, just to hear my music. I picture myself playing one of my songs, and as I look into the crowd, it seems like every single person is singing along with me.

Then I come back to reality. See how much I can visualize from that short mission statement? And I was actually holding back. You need to start feeling comfortable with visualizing success, and feeling every emotion associated with it. If you were to document every feeling you experienced, every sight you saw, it should take up several pages. But in your mind, all of these things will flash by in a minute or two, it's thrilling really.

Create your own mission statement. Practice becoming comfortable with visualizing your ideal reality, and realize that it will take practice before you can effectively do this! For a few minutes a day, ignore all the negative thoughts that come into your mind about your abilities and your music career, and just remember why you are doing all of this in the first place.