The Big 3 - Visualization, Motivation & The Subconscious Mind

[fireworld]

So, after years of research an reading as much as i can from the self help community, i still don't get these 3.

 

I have spent around 9 years in the self development community and still haven't gotten the results that i would have liked from it, most of the things that i have tried have not worked at all and at this point i feel really dissapointet by the whole process, i have gone so deep into the topic of self development that i cannot discuss these matters with anyone else since most people don't care about things like this. For everyone that's experienced or has insights, please share them since these 3 areas, i believe are the real cornerstones of living a fulfilled life, and you can help everyone on this forum by sharing.

So the first of the Big 3.

Visualization - The big secret in Napoleon HIlls book Think and Grow Rich. The idea of visualizing yourself as already having achieved the goal. Leo talks about this, but the way it seems to works is that a person builds up a new self image of themselves, and that the brain then looks to match the external world to the internal world. But is this actually what visiualization does? Or what is actually going on? What actually happens to your brain when you start visualizing? Can someone please ellaborate a little bit on this, also please share personal stories if you have had any success or dramatic changes from this process.

Motvation - How does motivation actually work, i am told that in order to be motivated you need to have a vision that is extremely compelling, but how do you create movtivation, do you visualize daily in order to "refuel" the fire? How do you get completely obssessed with your vision so that it gives you unbreakable persistance? If you are completely unmotivated, how do you get yourself motivated? Do you create a vision of yourself, and then continiously reconnect with that vision? Has anyone created a burning desire or a complete obsession by doing visualization work? Does anyone have any research or a more in depth understand of this? Is there anyone who has gone from being completely unmotivated to being a truly motivated and driven individual by doing visualization?

The Subconscious mind? - The holy grail of all self development work - But how does it work, when i try to research the subconscious mind i do find a lot of interesting things, but i don't find any support for most of the claims that are made, like affirmations, or visualizations, or even the "secret". Most of the information that i have gathered comes from Thinking Fast and Slow, where the unconcious mind makes snap decisions and so forth, but it doesnt say that you can "reprogram the subconcious mind" by affirmations, or visiualizations or any other self help techniques?

Can someone please crack the code on these 3 for me since i have watched every youtube video that i can find on it and most of it is either non-sense or it simply is contradictory to what the sciences say?

The reason that these are so important for me is because i have known for years that there are certain changes that i have had to make, but have not been able to make myself take the right action steps to complete the goal. I have all these goals and nice dreams, but i cannot get myself completely consumed by motivation and desire. Napoleon Hill says that " A weak desire will bring forth a weak result, just as a weak fire gives of little heat." ANd he goes on to say that "You can never have great riches, unless you can work yourself into a white heat of desire". BUt HOW?!

How do you actually get yourself that moviated, what are the steps?

The big 3 seems to have something to do with this?

Any help will be tremendous help!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aurum]

5 hours ago, fireworld said:

What actually happens to your brain when you start visualizing? Can someone please ellaborate a little bit on this, also please share personal stories if you have had any success or dramatic changes from this process.

What "actually" happens? Who knows. Some people say it causes your RAS to zero in on the correct solutions to your problems, thus your inner world comes to reflect your outer. Others would say your a divine being capable of creating any reality you choose.

It doesn't really matter how it truly works. These are all just different models for a certain phenomenon. Pick whatever one you resonate with.

5 hours ago, fireworld said:

Motvation - How does motivation actually work

You basically have two types of motivations: egoic motivations and authentic motivations. You never don't have enough motivation, laziness does not exist. You only can block motivation by being at war with yourself. End the war with conflicting desires and motivation flows freely.

 

5 hours ago, fireworld said:

The Subconscious mind? - The holy grail of all self development work - But how does it work, when i try to research the subconscious mind i do find a lot of interesting things, but i don't find any support for most of the claims that are made, like affirmations, or visualizations, or even the "secret".

And you're not going to find any. What exactly kind of proof would satisfy you that affirmations work?

[fireworld]

4 hours ago, aurum said:

And you're not going to find any. What exactly kind of proof would satisfy you that affirmations work?

Well, i am looking for the answer to Action! Because taking consistent action that is outside of your comfort zone makes you grow. And not having these 3 under control seems to make it impossible to achieve anything in life, whether it's noble or just for purely egotistical reasons like money.

So if we still don't understand these 3 we may never become truly self actualized, or we may be focused on  the wrong thing entirely. Maybe there is something else that leads a person to unlock their inner drive and really make the big changes in their lives that they would need to.

So the proof would be that any of these 3 can actually transform a person, i am now on 4 months of affirmations and a night/day visualization and i still don't feel a brutal inner drive.

(A long time ago, i had motivation that was unstoppable, i would work 115 hours a week and when i would go to bed at night i had a journal in case i came up with some idea that would be useful for work the next day, I had what Napoleon Hill calls, a burning desire, but i haven't felt that way in years, that's why i am asking).

 

 

[Soulbass]

I found a tips on how to print images/emotions/visionboard in subconscious mind, for those working on computers all day long :
- Resize your chosen pictures (just crop, not squash) to fit the resolution of your screen.
- Set wallpapers to change every 5 minutes, and choose the path/folder to your pictures.
- Set screensaver to start after 1 minutes, and randomly change pictures after few seconds.

Edited October 12, 2016 by Soulbass

[aurum]

5 hours ago, fireworld said:

(A long time ago, i had motivation that was unstoppable, i would work 115 hours a week and when i would go to bed at night i had a journal in case i came up with some idea that would be useful for work the next day, I had what Napoleon Hill calls, a burning desire, but i haven't felt that way in years, that's why i am asking).

 

What affirmations / visualizations are you using? What were you working that you were putting in these kinds of hours? What's the difference between then and now?

[fireworld]

9 hours ago, Soulbass said:

I found a tips on how to print images/emotions/visionboard in subconscious mind, for those working on computers all day long :
- Resize your chosen pictures (just crop, not squash) to fit the resolution of your screen.
- Set wallpapers to change every 5 minutes, and choose the path/folder to your pictures.
- Set screensaver to start after 1 minutes, and randomly change pictures after few seconds.

Interestingly enough, a long time ago whe i was around 15 years old, i had a crush on a woman that i felt was really beautiful, so i did what you say here, i use to take my computer by my side and look at pictures of her all night until i fell asleep, around 3 months later, she became my girlfriend.

I don't know if that is the secret in it's purest form, or just strange luck.

[fireworld]

7 hours ago, aurum said:

What affirmations / visualizations are you using? What were you working that you were putting in these kinds of hours? What's the difference between then and now?

I have a journal in my bed, and every night I write down affirmations "My bank account is growing fast" and so on. I was selling computer hardware over the internet, but the 2008 crash basically wiped me out completely. The difference is that i don't know what the difference is, i have severe apathy now for almost everything, i have gotten too comfortable. Time is going by so fast, im not going to get to my goals in life unless i start working with that same passion again.

[Soulbass]

11 hours ago, fireworld said:

Time is going by so fast, im not going to get to my goals in life unless i start working with that same passion again.

Did you purchased/completed the life purpose course ?

[fireworld]

13 hours ago, Soulbass said:

Did you purchased/completed the life purpose course ?

No I haven't yet, but i plan on getting it sometime soon. Does it answer the questions you think?

[Soulbass]

22 hours ago, fireworld said:

No I haven't yet, but i plan on getting it sometime soon. Does it answer the questions you think?

Yes absolutely !

There is a whole chapter on recognizing your true values, that leads to authentic happiness

[Kacper Wielunski]

On 12-10-2016 at 0:59 AM, fireworld said:

But is this actually what visiualization does? Or what is actually going on? What actually happens to your brain when you start visualizing? Can someone please ellaborate a little bit on this, also please share personal stories if you have had any success or dramatic changes from this process.

Hello friend ! All i can say about visualization is my little story. About 8 months ago i went to my first work in other country than my own. It was not that bad but still lots of stress fear and sense of lonliness. After about 2 months of worki stumbled upon concept of visualization - every night before sleep i visualized myself 6 months from now on after work end been thinking like "i made it! 8 months of work here and at the same time meditation training reading im soo diffrent from 8 months ago i have grovn mentaly and spiritualy and its fantastic!" And it was just like that. Every time i was about to quit or give up automaticly a thought apeared in my head like but i whant that what iv been visualizing and if ill give up its over! And it gave me drive to finish dispite all problems.

Motivation lets you see whan can be and thus pushes you to action. Maybe what you need is to let your imagination loose and create a great vision of youreself compleating that and that something great something that will make you think thats impossible but let it stick with you ! What is the worst that can happen? You wont do the impossible? Isnt its better to die trying or to sit on your ass whole life saying what is the point ? Ya know most things common nowdays 200 years ago heck 100 years ago would seem impossible hahah! Comon ! Make the impossible possible! 

[reez]

@fireworld In my opinion people just get the visualization thing wrong. You can't expect yourself to just visualize something and then magically it'll come to you.

You should see the end result as well as the road to where you've gotten. Just seeing the end results won't do anything. So first and foremost you need goals for whatever it is you want to get/achieve. Now you need to make a "roadmap" on how to achieve this goal. For the visualization to work you need to do the part of HOW you get to the point where you wanna be. So combine the end result together with the road there.

Obviously, you have to be specific, you can't say "I want to get rich, and to do that I will earn more money". Rather something in this way "I wanna earn $50.000 on a monthly basis by the end of next year. I am gonna achieve this by creating my own company and providing service of value to other people". This value/service is something you'd have to figure out for yourself and put in your visualization/affirmation.

A book that is often overlooked by Napoleon Hill, is the "Law of Success" 21st-century edition. In my opinion, it's better than ToG and gives a complete blueprint of how to achieve "success" whether that's financial or anything else you have in mind.

When you are doing the affirmations, don't just utter the word. You need to show FEELINGS, positive feelings. If you are talking about how you're gonna achieve your goal of 50k/month next year then you should express both faith (that you'll achieve it) together with enthusiasm for the upcoming road you have ahead of yourself.

[Truth]

IMO, those big three aren't what you should be focusing on, if anything it's Enlightenment, Purpose and Strategy.

I can see that you have your mind closed to some concepts because they seem " non-sense or it simply is contradictory to what the sciences says." You don't have to believe people, you can find the truth within your direct experience if you actually try to look for it in your life, in fact this is the only way you should be looking at life. How can a person surrender to their motivation or their vision if they have limiting beliefs about it, a resistance to it, a kind of "but how do I do it? Is it even possible? What if I fail? What do I do? Yeah but this contradicts this." mentality. Motivation is a feeling thing, it sits in your mind and feels good when it shows up in your conscious awareness. You're sabotaging your motivation by whatever limiting belief you hold, whatever resistance you're having when that vision pops up in your mind you gotta ask the important questions like: What kind of reservations do I have about this vision? or What's honestly holding me back? (it's not external things btw)  and that's where strategy comes in. This is the inner work that needs to be done, and identifying and strategizing these things is a process.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2016 by Truth

[fireworld]

17 hours ago, Truth said:

IMO, those big three aren't what you should be focusing on, if anything it's Enlightenment, Purpose and Strategy.

I can see that you have your mind closed to some concepts because they seem " non-sense or it simply is contradictory to what the sciences says." You don't have to believe people, you can find the truth within your direct experience if you actually try to look for it in your life, in fact this is the only way you should be looking at life. How can a person surrender to their motivation or their vision if they have limiting beliefs about it, a resistance to it, a kind of "but how do I do it? Is it even possible? What if I fail? What do I do? Yeah but this contradicts this." mentality. Motivation is a feeling thing, it sits in your mind and feels good when it shows up in your conscious awareness. You're sabotaging your motivation by whatever limiting belief you hold, whatever resistance you're having when that vision pops up in your mind you gotta ask the important questions like: What kind of reservations do I have about this vision? or What's honestly holding me back? (it's not external things btw)  and that's where strategy comes in. This is the inner work that needs to be done, and identifying and strategizing these things is a process.

 

 

 

 

 

You are probably right, but the challange for me here has been what Felix Dennis called "Cutting loose" Which entails leaving a life that you are not satisfied with and changing it completely for the pursuit of your dreams. It has been some time since i felt the motivation to change and actually start going for my goals.

I understand that i may have limiting beliefs, and im now taking a NLP class to work with those beliefs. I have also done some work on parts integreation trying to get myself aligned from within.

But how do i get the absolute faith in myself and that burning desire to achieve? That is what led me to success before and what my life lacks right now.

I am prepared to fully commit to my journey but a part of me simple doesn't want to or feels to afraid to. I also have extreme difficulty with my visualization. I used to visiualize my business growing and me growing, and i could barely fall asleep because of the feelings in my body were so energizing. Now when i visualize its agonizing, parts of me simple refuse to indulge in the vision.

Should i just blast my subconcious mind with my visions untill i start believeing in it or what?

I would empty my bank account to somebody if i could find the answer to what makes a human being take action and how i can do so for the rest of my life.

 

 

 

 

[fireworld]

20 hours ago, reez said:

@fireworld In my opinion people just get the visualization thing wrong. You can't expect yourself to just visualize something and then magically it'll come to you.

You should see the end result as well as the road to where you've gotten. Just seeing the end results won't do anything. So first and foremost you need goals for whatever it is you want to get/achieve. Now you need to make a "roadmap" on how to achieve this goal. For the visualization to work you need to do the part of HOW you get to the point where you wanna be. So combine the end result together with the road there.

Obviously, you have to be specific, you can't say "I want to get rich, and to do that I will earn more money". Rather something in this way "I wanna earn $50.000 on a monthly basis by the end of next year. I am gonna achieve this by creating my own company and providing service of value to other people". This value/service is something you'd have to figure out for yourself and put in your visualization/affirmation.

A book that is often overlooked by Napoleon Hill, is the "Law of Success" 21st-century edition. In my opinion, it's better than ToG and gives a complete blueprint of how to achieve "success" whether that's financial or anything else you have in mind.

When you are doing the affirmations, don't just utter the word. You need to show FEELINGS, positive feelings. If you are talking about how you're gonna achieve your goal of 50k/month next year then you should express both faith (that you'll achieve it) together with enthusiasm for the upcoming road you have ahead of yourself.

I have studied Napoleon Hills work for years, and I have read every book he has published, even the ones that flopped.  The problem with me is that when i try to visualize i have extreme resistance to it. And i can't get motivation even after having been visualizing and meditating like i was a munk!

[Swede]

4 hours ago, fireworld said:

I would empty my bank account to somebody if i could find the answer to what makes a human being take action and how i can do so for the rest of my life.

I think the reson why you can't take action is because you don't believe in what you are doing. You have to be deeply sure that your actions are the right thing to do. To be authentically sure about what you want in life, do inner work. As someone mentioned before, Leo's Life Purpose Course has content about finding your true values. That's a start.

Whatever you are doing in life, make sure it serves humanity and the world. I think serving humanity and the world is a core value in all humans. Align your actions in life with this value.

Maybe you also need to detach yourself from the need of taking action. I get a feeling of desperation in your writing. Play with this idea: You can spend the rest of your life doing nothing -- just sleeping, eating and pooping -- and still be happy and fulfilled. Try during your meditation to let go of your needs. Let yourself just be.

About visualization: I think you are pushing it too hard. Try to let the visualization come more naturally. Daydream instead. Let your unconscious mind lead you to new interesting visions by daydreaming. You have to deeply believe your vision is the right path in life for you. Feel free to let your future vision morph and change by time.

Ask yourself: What do I want in life? And give yourself a deep answer to this question.

And don't think too much. Use your intuition.