Summer Journal: Visualize

The mind believes whatever it is that it sees.  We can't escape this.  That's why school's are trying to be more experiential, the sciences seek to prove through experiment, and our experiences teach us more than what people describe to us.  Our mind tends to believe what we put in front of it.

But one neglected part of our mind is our imagination.  The root of imagination is image, meaning that our imagination is the images that we put into our mind.  Imagination doesn't mean make believe, it means the images that we think about and visualize.  The thing is, that when we use this visualization, the mind sees these images and begins to believe them to.  It makes life much richer when we use our imagination.

This is easily applicable to life.  When people constantly see themselves in a certain way, they can never overcome it.  Kobe Bryant has talked about watching himself hit big shots in big games, people struggling with depression often replay negative images and project negative futures, and these things become fulfilled.  So I wonder as I think about tennis next year, what do we visualize?

I've started working out with guys this week, Mikey, Ben, Seth, Kyle, and Andy Slagel have all showed up at some point to begin to work on their games.  When I see people working hard, it's easy to imagine success. 

October 3rd, the air is a bit crisp in the morning as we warm up with anticipation.  In our minds are visions of success, and in our strokes an essence of confident ease.  We've worked hard all season long, and we're ready to play hard for our final goal.  As the first match moves along we conquer our nerves with well-played strokes and strategy and move on to the Sectional final.  In the final, we pump up our energy and get ready to play in a fun match that we've waited all season for.  Our singles players stroke the ball to all corners, running their opponents back and forth and finishing points with well-placed volleys and confident fist pumps.  Our doubles players attack, from baseline and net.  At the end of the day, we stand around with arms on shoulders singing Sarasponda and holding the trophy high.

Is that what we visualize?  I can see it.