Imagery Leads to Success in Business and Sports

Every summer I travel back to a specific July morning when I decided to train to become an Olympic athlete. My semi-young stepfather was ranked fifteenth in the USA for downhill skiing at the time. I witnessed him travel to South America to train in the summer and to Lake Placid to train in the winter. This particular summer was also the year Nadia Comaneci scored a perfect 10 in competition and watching the Olympics was on my agenda every day after swimming in the lake I grew up on. Inspired by Nadia, I stated my intention quite clear at the dinner table that I was going to become an Olympic athlete. My stepfather immediately said, “Tracy, that’s great. I’ll train you!” I remember thinking my dream was going to come true quicker than I thought with an immediate “coach” by my side.

Every morning and afternoon, my coach and I headed down to the cove on the lake where our dock was stationed so I could swim laps for an hour to start my conditioning. I was pretty excited about my goal swimming every day. Until two weeks later, on one dark, rainy day we headed down for my training and the water seemed too dark to swim in and I declared, “I don’t want to be an Olympic athlete anymore!” My stepfather smiled at me as if he knew all along this would be the outcome. And that was that, my Olympic dream came to an end two weeks after I started it.

Even though imagery works well for elite athletes, it was not working for my 12 year old spunky self. For top athletes imagery can be a difficult skill to learn; but once executed can enable them to envision performing their sport from start to finish as if they are doing it in real time. I suppose I needed to know about imagery back when I was young.

As woman business owner, we can take a clue from elite athletes by using imagery for our own entrepreneurial success. We can use imagery to land an unexpected client, secure a lucrative financial contract, or increase revenue one quarter. One of the reasons I like morning meditation is to put big goals and intentions into the world and to see myself securing them in a few months.

This week I had a couple major intentions get realized. As I hung up the phone with two new women from other parts of the country entered my world through connections, asking and envisioning, I realized more women entrepreneurs should use imagery as part of their daily business practice. It might take time for imagery to work, but it does if practiced and remaining patient.