1. Leaders require imagination and visualization: If you have become accustomed to believing that you lack imagination, try this simple experiment that can prove to you that the power of visualization is yours. (Read through the following first), then close your eyes and imagine you have a lemon in your hand. Roll it around in your hand and feel its texture. It feels slightly cool. The skin is slick and a little waxy; yet not exactly smooth. Now squeeze the lemon slightly. Can you feel it give in to the pressure? It gives just a little though, and is actually quite firm. Now pick up a knife and cut the lemon in half. Feel he initial resistance to the knife; then as the cut is made, the lemon splits easily. Smell the sharp, pungent odor of the oil in the rind, then the milder, but more lasting odor of the juice. The smell of the lemon is strong and tangy as you raise it toward your face. Your mouth waters a little as you look at it. Now taste it; the sharp acid sets your tongue on edge. Your mouth waters even more, and your lips pucker. Now open your eyes. Could you feel the lemon? Could you taste it? Did your mouth actually water?
You do have a powerful imagination – some say one of our most important senses!

2. Visualization and Goal Setting: If you are able to formulate an idea or a plan, if you are able to build a picture of it in your imagination and stay with it until it is crystal clear, if you can see it so vividly, so sharply that you can put it into words and make others see it as clearly as you do, you are visualizing! Visualizing is most important in goal setting when you visualize the future. Just as you saw the fruit, tasted the lemon, so you can see in your mind’s eye future events as you want to experience them.

3. From imagination to fulfillment: Using visualization successfully depends upon your ability to focus your mental picture sharply. When you are self-motivated, your imagination is set free and you understand and believe that you can create anything you visualize. Trainers for Olympic teams use visualization exercises to help athletes increase the effectiveness of their performance. When I worked with the Canadian National Ski team, during their workouts – Brian Stemmle, Eddie Podivinski and Graydon Oldfield would balance on a ball or balance board, often with weights, close their eyes and visualize their way thru the downhill ski course – be it Kitzbühel, St Moritz or Val d’Isere. Their heart rates would actually increase when the got to the most challenging and dangerous sections of the course using only the power of visualization.