Creative visualization is the ability to see with your mind. Everyone has this ability, though some are naturally better at it than others. Whenever you daydream you are visualizing. In fact, every time you think, you create images in your mind. Most of the time, your thoughts will be random, but you have the ability to deliberately insert specific thoughts into your mind.

Imagine you're going to a party. You're slightly nervous, as you know none of the other guests. While driving to the party, you're likely to be thinking about the evening. If your thoughts focus on the fact that you'll know no one, and will probably have a miserable night, you can almost guarantee that's exactly what will happen. However, if you consider the party to be a good opportunity to make new friends, and you mentally see yourself having a good time, the chances are you'll have a wonderful evening. Whatever visualization you focus upon will become the reality.

Several years ago, a friend told me he was trapped in the job he was doing, and would never get promoted. I tried to convince him to visualize himself progressing in his career. "I just can't see myself getting ahead," he told me. It was at that moment I realized how everyone uses creative visualization all the time. Even though he was not consciously aware of it, my friend was visualizing himself as a failure. Unfortunately, as we do this unconsciously, we often visualize negative, rather than positive, outcomes. My friend was visualizing himself as stuck in a rut, and as long as he continued thinking along those lines, that is the reality he was attracting into his life.

Fortunately, my friend was prepared to listen to what I, and other friends, told him. He started consciously thinking positive thoughts, and gradually his life turned around. It took my friend a long time to change his patterns of thinking, but his current success shows how effective creative visualization can be.

Creative visualization is a highly enjoyable way to change patterns of behavior to help you achieve your goals. All you need to do is visualize or imagine the successful outcome to something you want to achieve. This can be literally anything. You might want to find a new job, meet a new partner, take an overseas vacation, eliminate stress, lose weight, or gain confidence. If you want to improve your golf game, model yourself on Jack Nicklaus, and visualize yourself hitting the perfect shot. It you want to become a millionaire, visualize yourself leading a life of wealth and abundance.

This is much more than mere daydreaming. Most people have idle thoughts about being rich. However, these thoughts are crowded out by all the other thoughts of poverty and lack. With creative visualization those idle thoughts are transformed into something real. You need a specific goal. Becoming rich is not a goal, as it's too vague. Having $1,000,000 in assets is a goal, as it is a specific sum that can be measured. If that happens to be your goal, you need to consciously insert your desire for this sum into your brain on a regular basis. You need to believe you can do this, and you need faith that it will work. Of course, creative visualization is much more than positive thinking. Creative visualization is the process that allows you to take a positive thought and turn it into reality. When you focus on what you desire, your mind starts working to bring into reality whatever it is you want.

I had an interesting example of this a few years ago. I had been studying the I Ching, but was constantly frustrated at the vague answers I was getting to my questions. My wife suggested that I visualize the perfect teacher. About a month after I had started doing this, an elderly Chinese man came up to me at a shopping mall. He had been at a talk I'd given several months earlier and wanted to thank me. I was delighted, but his next words astonished me. He asked me if I'd like to learn the I Ching from him.

You will not be surprised that I wrote Creative Visualization for Beginners as a direct result of creative visualization. Over the years, many people have suggested to me that I write a book on this subject. I always replied that I would "one day." However, the thought gradually instilled itself in my mind. I began thinking about what I'd include in the book, if I decided to write it. After a while, it seemed natural to write an outline. Finally, once the book took shape in my mind, I sat down and wrote it. This book would never have been written if I hadn't visualized it in my mind first.

Your brain is an incredible instrument that works like a magnet to attract to you whatever it is you desire. You owe it to yourself to use creative visualization to set and achieve your goals. Remember to aim high, because your potential is unlimited.