validation spank bank

a magic trick

photo by Luis Aguilar

I’ve been thinking about how to get better at the things I want to get better at, and how I can make others better at the things they want to get better at, and when I was good at those things, why was I good? Wait, what do you mean that sentence is whack? What’s that you say? It sounds like a tired writer who’s getting her period and has a massive headache and is writing this in the afternoon, a time of day which she notoriously hates? Moving on.

If you want a great product (and I’m mostly talking about creating art are here, but this can be applied to anything that might be hard to achieve or nerve-wrecking to do - like running your fastest race yet, doing an improv scene, speaking up at a meeting) there’s something needed besides practicing and rewriting and fine-tuning and more rehearsing to get you there. And yeah, you gotta do all of those things, like, a lot. But work ethic isn’t the only thing that counts. We all know talented people who crumble when they get on stage, or super fun single people who freeze up on a first date. It can’t just be about the work you put in.

So what’s missing?

Well, the magic trick is missing.

I’m big on visualization. Like, actually huge on it. You’ve probably heard that visualizing the thing you want to happen in the future is an excellent tool. It will help you feel as though you can accomplish it, and therefor you’ll behave like you can accomplish it. You don’t doubt or judge yourself too much, and that allows for things to flow easier in and out of you. Even though I’m not the most woowoo person you’ve ever met, I know the act of visualizing specific moments has helped me immensely in reaching my goals. Again, I feel like I can actually accomplish things because I see them and that evokes a feeling in me, so I act like it’s obvious I’m going to accomplish them, and acting that way is half makes me behave differently, and don’t ya knot that behavior is everything. (This paragraph is wildly redundant. Should I hire an editor? Lol just kidding.)

But future visualization is not the type of visualization I’m talking about here.