SELF | SPORT
The Power Of Visualisation In Action
How I applied visualization techniques without knowing it
It was cold, damp, and raining outside. I didn’t feel like going training — swimming with my local club team in a working-class part of Dublin, Tallaght. It was almost Christmas and I just wanted to curl up on the couch and watch a movie … Star Wars and The Goonies were on TV.
“Dad, I don’t think I’ll go training today”, my Dad could have stayed home too, in the comfort of our warm house, but his response was supportive: “Ah com’on Paulie, just go down, see how you feel.”
That was my Dad, he was a supportive father, not a pushy-parent, rather the type of Man who would give you a nudge when you needed it. He passed away in 2014 and I miss him every day.
The Turning Point
Looking back now, this was a turning point for me, the impact from this point forward would have an incredible trajectory on my life.
6 months later I was the fastest swimmer at my local club. I recall my coach giving me a list of the top 125 swimmers in Ireland, I wasn’t even in the top 100, I think I was 115th, I was 12 years old.
A few months later I decided to leave my local club to join a better team, a team with dozens of the top Irish swimmers.
My Vision
You see, at 12 years of age, soon after my coach gave me the top 125 list of Swimmers in Ireland, I began to Dream. My dream was this:
I visualised myself living and training in the USA at University.
One of my teammates at my new club in Terenure did exactly that, he was my mentor, someone I looked upto. He attended University in the USA and I quizzed him at every opportunity. As I listened more detail unfolded in my mind to add to the growing vision I had. I was now 13 and he was 22 years old and the National record holder in my event — 200m Butterfly.
My daily Visualisation continued — I had dreams, lucid dreams, day-dreams, all the while visualising that this would become my reality. I did this intuitively, years before Medium existed where people can learn from articles like The Complete Guide to Visualization by Melody Wilding, LMSW.
My Vision Unfolds
By the time I was 14 years old I was National Junior (Under 16) Champion in the 200m Butterfly, I won the race by 5 seconds … 10 metres between me and the 2nd place finisher.
2 years later I was National Junior Record Holder, a record that stood for almost 10 years, I remember his name— Paul O’Neill — I broke his Record. Paul was the fastest Butterflyer in Ireland when I started.
My Vision Becomes Reality
During my 17th year in this world, I was offered a full Scholarship to attend University in Ohio. For 5 years I lived this outcome in my minds-eye and it became my reality.
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
— Napoleon Hill
Now, it’s important to point out that I did much more than Dream. I acted on this dream, every day. So you need to do likewise. I trained hard, ate and rested well. I endured ups and downs, developing resilience along the way.
5 Simple Takeaways
Having written this article, I reminded myself how I applied Visualisation techniques to influence the outcome of my goals and ambitions. So the following takeaways are as much for me as they are for you, the reader:
- Your Mind is powerful, so remember to train it and use it
- Think Big
- Believe in your Dreams
- Act on your Goals, everyday
- Visualise as often as possible — Feel it, touch it, hear it, see it and smell it
“The mind is everything. What you think, you become,”
— Buddha taught
