My cognitive strategy - a habit of ‘positive’ visualization and thinking patterns.

One has a better probability of achieving success through mental preparation - a positive belief or image of achieving success.  In 1992, several researchers interviewed various members of the U.S. Olympic team to determine their pre-competition preparation.  The research indicated that those who had the best outcomes followed a strict mental preparation plan of total focus on seeing their own success, building confidence, and visualizing routes to achieve high performance. Ultimately had higher probabilities in winning.  However, those who had the worst outcomes were not confident in their preparation plans and often had thoughts on failure.   The conclusion was that pre-competitive states (positive or negative thoughts) play a critical role in competitive performance.  Thus, like the Little Blue Engine, who said “I think I can,  I think I can” and climbed that big mountain, we can become high achievers by our own positive visualization and thoughts.   The methodology for this cognitive strategy is easy as 1, 2, and 3.  

1. Recognition of the challenging situation - for example, doing 100 pull-ups; or becoming a millionaire
2. Use of affirmations and visualization to see your own ability to execute a target behavior for achieving those results - tell yourself you can do the pull-ups and then see yourself doing 100 pull-ups; or tell yourself you can be a millionaire and then see yourself investing and watching  your net worth grow)
3. the resulting performance - now, actually doing the pull-ups or investing.

Takeaways:

1. Use self-dialog, tell-yourself that you can achieve. Often referred to as affirmations in ‘pop’ psychology.
2. Use mental imagery - the imagined results of behavior and success - before you actually perform. Often referred to as visualization in ‘pop’ psychology. 
3. Avoid or replace your distorted beliefs and assumptions that may be the basis of your dysfunctional thought processes.

In the future, I plan to investigate and discuss the brain’s chemical responses to affirmations and visualization.