Visualizing Your Future Success
How to master the power of visualization
As I’m wrapping up my first Spring Training with the Phillies, I was thinking about how I’m fortunate enough to be living the life that I envisioned for myself many years ago.
Even though at times it seemed so far out of reach, I remained persistent and kept working towards my goals, my grand vision for myself.
Then I realized that I should write about it, so that hopefully others can be inspired to do the same.
So here it is: a full breakdown of visualization from the perspective of a pro baseball player. Some of this might seem surface level, some might seem obvious, maybe you think it’s boring. That’s fine. But trust me: actually living this way is much more difficult than it seems.
Those who have a burning desire in their heart to be great at something will appreciate this.
Here’s everything I’ll be covering:
Vision vs. Visualization
Your Big Vision
Finding your “north star”
Why you need a vision for yourself
Pre-Competition Visualization
Active vs. Passive
Why it works
I’m writing this from the perspective of a professional baseball player, but all these ideas apply to any challenging human endeavor.
Vision vs. Visualization:
A “vision” is a transformative view of your own personal identity. A future that your mind, heart, and soul desires. This is the foundation that you draw your passion from. It powers you through the monotonous routines, and serves as your shining light during your darkest times.
Your vision for your future self, your big dream, whatever it may be, serves as your north star. It drives you to do all the things both big and small that are required to make it real.
A vision is a real idea or image of the future that exists in your mind, whereas visualization is the act of creating that idea and using it as motivation to act.
Many successful athletes use visualization as a tool to improve their performance, making their future success seem almost inevitable.
Your Big Vision
Finding your “north star”
Your “north star” is really just something that you want to achieve so badly that it remains at the center of your consciousness all the time. It is the vision for yourself that is so powerful that it always will guide you forward, no matter how great of a struggle you have to endure.
My dream, my vision for myself, is to be a Big Leaguer. My dream since my childhood, something that is exceptionally difficult. That’s why I signed with the Phillies. That’s why I’m playing Minor League baseball. My vision for myself has guided me to this point, through thick and thin.
This insane goal that I always aspired to reach is what motivated me to do the little things every day that would lead to my success despite no immediate payoff:
Training every day, obsessing over improving my skills, overcoming adversity, always eating healthy, focusing on good sleep, avoiding over-exerting myself off the field, and building my entire lifestyle around my baseball career.
It takes discipline and sacrifice, but to me it’s all worth it.
I’m just following my north star.
To find yours, if it’s not obvious to you already, you need to do some deep introspection into what YOU want out of this life. Again, what you want. You only get one shot at this life, so find something your heart truly desires.
If your future feels cloudy, and you’re struggling to visualize what success actually looks like to you, I highly recommend grabbing a pen and paper and answering these questions:
Who are you?
Who/what do you wish to become?
What does success look like to you?
What is stoping you from getting there?
How you’re going to overcome that obstacle?
Now that you have translated your thoughts onto pen and paper, they now exist in the real world, not just in your mind. Now that they exist outside of you, this sheet of paper now holds YOU accountable. You now owe it to your past self to fulfill your promises. This should paint a pretty clear picture in your head of what you want.
Why you need a vision for yourself
The world will ask you what you are, and if you don’t know, it will decide for you.
This world can be tough, it can be brutal, sometimes in ways we never anticipate.
If we just go about our lives existing, consuming, never working towards any significant goal, we are just aimlessly floating around waiting for the world to happen to us.
Being a visionary automatically separates you because it puts you in the driver’s seat. You cut through all the noise and distractions, are unfazed by setbacks, and just keep pushing forward.
I do not stay positive because I believe everything will always work out right away. Life doesn’t work like that. I stay positive because I have fallen short of my vision many times before, and yet I always get back up and continue to move forward. My dream and overall vision for my future life is so powerful that nothing can stand in the way of it. On a long enough timeline, I always win.
The man with the vision can never be defeated. He always gets up again: climbs out of the wreckage, stronger, always building, continuing the journey forward. The world bends to his will. He is able to weather the storm while others sail blind.
This is how the man with the clear vision reaches the point of excellence and mastery: he he didn’t need immediate payoff to validate what he was working towards. He knows that if he continues to show up with focus and persistence, that he will slowly move towards his destination.
He might stumble and fall, he might fail, he might have moments of doubt, but then he blinks and he’s further along than he even realizes.
My dream is to be a Big Leaguer. Which it should be, because why else would I be playing in the minor leagues? Maybe your dream or vision for your future life is the same as mine, maybe it’s something different.
If it’s something very difficult, exclusive, out of reach for many, then you can’t just hope it will happen one day. That’s not how the world works. Very rarely do your wildest dreams just fall into your lap for free.
That’s the difference between a wish and a vision. We all wish our lives were better, but only the visionary has the conviction to make it happen.
I’m going to lay it out right here why you need to envision what ‘success’ looks like.
The man with no vision:
Always wishing for more
No action, paralyzed by analysis
Panics when faced with failure: failure = attack on identity
Can’t stick to a plan long enough to see results
Waits for things to happen to him
The man with a vision:
Knows exactly what he wants
Does what is necessary to make it happen
Sees failure as feedback to help progress forward
Committed to his plan
Knows he wields the power to shape his own future
Ok, I’ve gone on and on about how having a vision for your future success is imortant, but what does that actually look like in practice?
This is where visualization comes into play, where we can leverage our goals and ambitions as a tool for motivation and performance.
The Art of Visualization
Passive vs. Active Visualization
Passive visualization:
A fancy word for daydreaming. This is when see yourself achieving the results you want in your head without even trying, just as you go about your day. You’re basically ‘daydreaming’ about your future success.
This is what motivates you to do the work that nobody sees. To do the little things required to reach your goal meticulously and consistently, even in the face of failure or uncertainty.
A strong vision/dream is a requirement for this to even happen. Your mind is consumed with achieving your goals, and your heart has a burning desire to turn your dream into your reality.
Sometimes I just go about my day and I replay big moments of me pitching in my head. I see myself striking people out, sometimes in the past, sometimes in the present, sometimes in the future in crazy scenarios. I don’t try to, it just happens.
Active visualization:
The meditative practice of visualization most people are familiar with. This is when you consciously choose to sit and see yourself achieving your goals in your head.
This is more of a tool for short-term performance. Something you do when you need to win in a big moment.
Like many other athletes, I use active visualization as a tool to prepare me to pitch. Whether it be in my apartment, the hotel, or at the field, I take time to sit and play a ‘highlight reel’ of myself in my head. Seeing myself throw the pitches I want to throw.
This kind of visualization is sometimes blindly prescribed by mental performance coaches and such. It’s not a catch-all, but still very powerful.
Active Visualization Routine:
Find a setting that will allow you to focus best:
Bed, couch, or quiet room if you prefer solitude
The actual environment if you prefer emersion (example: at the stadium/field)
Lower your heart rate and reach a meditative state
Close your eyes
Control your breathing
Use white noise or calming sounds/music to drown out external noise
Envision executing the tasks you need to accomplish
Envision yourself winning/celebrating
The effects of visualization on your brain
When you sit down and actively visualize yourself doing something like throwing a pitch, your brain fires along many of the same neural pathways it uses when you actually throw one.
This functional equivalence means your brain doesn't fully distinguish between a vividly imagined movement and the real thing. Since your brain is exposed to an experience before it happens, it reduces the novelty of the moment. You are less anxious and more confident, able to express your ability more freely in that instinctual, child-like way.
Why do you think pro athletes seem so nonchalant and effortlessly good? It’s because they’ve been in these situations countless times. Both in the real world, and in their own mind.