Visualizing Success | The Proven, 4-Step Tool to Achieve More

Learn how visualizing success can help you achieve your dreams with this proven, 4-step process!

Do you hold yourself to a higher standard than those around you? If so, you probably expect much more

In this Post:

1. The 4 Steps of Visualization
2. Step One: Conceive– The Creative Subconscious
3. Step Two: Believe– Amplify Your Mental Imagery
4. Step Three: Achieve– The Power of Action
5. Step Four: Receive–  Expand Your Results with Gratitude
6. Summary + Free eBook to Start Your Visualization Journey Now

What will your life be like a year from now? 

How about five or ten years down the road?

Will you have achieved your long-term goals? Will you be making the amount of money you hope to make? Will you have the home, the family, or the lifestyle you’ve dreamed of? Will all your hard work have paid off?

If you can answer all of those questions with absolute certainty, you probably don’t need to keep reading!

But if you’re like most people, and you aren’t sure exactly where you’re headed or how to get there, you won’t want to miss this blog post.

I’m going to share a simple approach to achieving your future goals that has been used by elite athletes, famous actors and actresses, and some of the most successful people in the world.

But before you go any further– I have a resource you can use to make the process I’m about to describe to you exceedingly simple and impactful! Download your copy of my Creating an Ignited Vision ebook and use it with the powerful 4-step process in this post for even better results.

The 4-Step Visualization Formula for Success Used by Andrew Carnegie, Napoleon Hill and Countless Others for Greater Success

If I told you that the key to achieving your goals and making your dreams a reality lies in the power of your imagination, you’d probably have a hard time believing me.

But the truth is, whether you have a goal or dream you’re working toward, but find yourself struggling to keep your momentum…

Or you know you want something different in your life, but aren’t sure what it is or where to start…

The practice of visualization has been proven to play a huge role in creating future success!

Visualization is a mental technique that uses the power of the imagination to create mental images that can turn dreams and goals into reality. Used properly, visualization can improve your life and attract success and prosperity.

The Power of Visualization in 4 Steps

There are many visualization techniques you can use to make this proven, powerful tool a part of your daily routine.

On my journey, I’ve found that the best way to make positive visualization a daily practice is to divide the process into four, easy-to-understand steps.

In fact, no matter which of the many different techniques you choose to use – whether guided meditation, a vision board, mental rehearsal, or something different – this 4-step process of visualizing will still apply! 

Integrate the visualization techniques you like the best into this 4-step formula, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly things in your life start to shift. 

1. Conceive: The Creative Subconscious

One of the most important tools humans have is the ability to imagine. Imagination enables you to access visual imagery outside of your physical reality.  

Using your creative subconscious to build visual images of your specific goals and the life you’d love living empowers you to shift your reality as you tap into your true desires and unrealized potential.

This creative superpower is so important to achieving your goals and manifesting more effectively.  Having a crystal clear mental image of what you want enables you to align with the frequency that’s an exact match to your dream.

Chances are, you use your imagination all the time – your brain is always thinking, processing, responding, and reacting to the world around you. Most people, however, have learned to use their imaginations to terrorize themselves by thinking about all the different ways things could go wrong. 

Imagining worst-case scenarios and focusing on negative feelings is an easy way to get in the way of your own success and achievement.

In fact, this habit is what most often keeps people from thinking the thoughts, feeling the feelings, making the decisions, and ultimately taking the actions required to achieve their end goal. 

Instead, practice using your imagination in a creative, intelligent way. Use the power of your imagination to generate creative ideas about what you would love in your life.  

Let your mind wander and explore all the amazing things that might be possible, all the things you would love to be, do, or experience, and focus on positive thoughts about the future you’re creating.

In step one, the most important thing is to conceive a dream for your life, without limits. Imagine it in great detail, and be sure to write it down!

2. Believe: Amplify Your Mental Imagery

In 1908, Napoleon Hill, a young writer struggling to barely get by, interviewed American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, one of the most powerful men in the world.

In the interview, Carnegie challenged Hill to do two things:

1. To study and write a book about the hidden principles of success.
2. To go home, and for a month, look at himself in the mirror three times a day and say: “Andrew Carnegie, I’m not only going to match your achievements in life; I’m going to meet you at the post and pass you at the grandstand.”

(In horse racing terms, “grandstand” means the beginning of the final stretch. In other words, this phrase suggested that Hill would beat Carnegie’s success!)

Although Hill didn’t believe those words, he accepted both challenges.

Over the next three weeks, he practiced doing what Carnegie had advised, even though he felt like it was silly.

Surprisingly, before the month was out, Hill was walking down the street and suddenly thought, “Well, it could happen.” 

Up until that moment, he’d been convinced there was no possible truth behind his new mantra. Yet, the silly, verbal affirmation had shifted something!

What he had discovered was this: A key factor to success is to speak your dream aloud – even if you don’t know HOW it will happen and even if doubt or negative thoughts creep in.

When you practice repeating your dream out loud, you amplify the power of thoughts alone and help your subconscious mind evolve to become a match for the vision you’re holding.

To support your belief in the vision you conceived in Step 1, even in the face of doubt, speak it! 

Use “I am” mantras, share your dream with someone you trust, or record a voice note on your phone talking about the new reality you’re creating as if it’s already happening in the present moment.

3. Achieve: The Power of Action

Step 3 is the phase most people skip when they begin using visualization tools and the Law of Attraction.

Achieving your dream requires you to ultimately move beyond imagining, beyond speaking, and into the physical practice of your dreams. Holding the visual representation of your dreams and goals should inspire you to begin to take action in your daily life!

Challenge yourself to start behaving as if you’ve already achieved your dream. It isn’t yet in the world of form (real life), but you are already carrying the energy and thought of your dream.

Look at your current situation, circumstances or condition, and simply say to yourself, “This is what it looks like while my vision is coming into play. It hasn’t come out yet, but it’s happening in me right now.”

Experience what it feels like to have achieved your dream – even though it hasn’t yet happened. 

Love, abundance, health and anything else you could ever want are already here, just waiting for you to tap into them more consistently. The more you can feel them in this very moment, the more your reality will begin to mirror them back to you in a variety of ways.

Use the feeling and inspiration of having already achieved your ultimate goal to begin making decisions from that very same lens. As you move through your day, practice asking yourself: 

1. “Does this move me in the direction of my dreams, closer to the vision I’m holding for my future?“
2. “What would the version of me who had already achieved their dreams do or decide at this moment?”
3. “How can I use this experience and what I have now to take a step in the direction of my dreams?” 

4. Receive: Expand Your Results with Gratitude

As you hold frequencies that are harmonious with your vision, the Infinite laws that govern how our results occur begin to go to work.

You will begin to attract more of what you want in your life – things that you can’t make happen, but you can make welcome because of the frequency on which you’re operating.

Allow yourself to receive these things with gratitude!

Napoleon Hill eventually went on to write Think and Grow Rich, an international bestseller that has sold over 20 million copies. His book is responsible for creating tens of thousands of millionaires worldwide as a result of what he taught about the hidden principles of success.

In another book of his titled Napoleon Hill’s Keys to Success: The 17 Principles of Personal Achievement, Hill wrote:

“If you make your prayers an expression of gratitude and thanksgiving for the blessings you already have, instead of requests for things you do not have, you will obtain results much faster.”

Step 4 of the visualization process requires us to practice gratitude for the things we have now and the things that show up as a result of the vision and action we’re incorporating into our lives. Those things may seem small, but the more we bless what is, the more we make space for even greater things. 

To support yourself in this final step, consider starting a gratitude journal or other gratitude practice that you can incorporate into your life regularly (try my free gratitude meditation to shift into the frequency of gratitude quickly!). 

Gratitude is the tool that will keep you in the frequency of receiving as you experience the shifts, changes, and new experiences inspired by your ignited vision!  

Summary: The 4-Step Visualization Formula

Fully developing your visualization skills takes practice. To help you hone these skills more quickly and easily, follow The 4-Step Visualization Formula:

1. Conceive: Identify your desires and imagine your goals and dreams in as much detail as possible
2. Believe: Amplify your mental imagery and shift your beliefs by vocalizing your vision and goals
3. Achieve: Whenever possible, take inspired action in support of your vision and the direction of your dreams and goals
4. Receive: Expand your ability to receive and make space for the new reality you’re creating with gratitude

You can start today with something that matters to you– there is no dream too big or too small. Set a goal for yourself that you can work toward over the next few days or weeks.

Put this formula to the test, then let me know how it’s going in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you!

Most of us desire success. We are, after all, growth-seeking beings – this is just the way we’re designed!

While many of us desire success in the form of more money or material wealth, not one of us wants to be wealthy in one area of our lives, but bankrupt in another. 

If you have a ton of money in the bank for example, but you’re lonely and surrounded by toxic relationships, or your health is suffering, is that really true success?

To discover how to visualize a rich, abundant life in all quadrants of your life, and how to begin taking steps to bring your dream to fruition, I highly encourage you to explore my Creating an Ignited Vision ebook!

The secret to true fulfillment is to create abundance in all areas of your life. And how to create a crystal clear vision of the kind of fully abundant life you were meant to live is exactly what you’ll discover when you download your copy!