So, What Are You Doing For Thanksgiving? (A Visualization Exercise)

I want you to start thinking about Thanksgiving, as in after Election Day.
Here’s why.
To get to any finish line successfully, it’s essential to think beyond it. Flipping that, if you cannot think beyond your goal, it’s difficult to achieve it.
That’s because if you can’t picture it, then you can’t evoke emotional attachment to the consequences or rewards that come from achieving it. The rewards come necessarily after the finish line.
The role of emotional attachment with regard to goals is described in the 1937 book about achieving success, Think And Grow Rich.
In that book, which you may know is one of my favorites, author Napoleon Hill lists success principles that work and explains why, writing, “Your subconscious mind recognizes and acts only upon thoughts which have been well-mixed with emotion or feeling.”
In other words, one must be able to feel what that success feels like, before it happens, or else it won’t happen.

This is no different from the visualization techniques used by highly successful athletes like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.
To get us past Election Day, therefore, let’s begin thinking and visualizing and feeling past it to, let’s say, Thanksgiving.
To do that, here’s an exercise. Try it! It’ll only take a few minutes.
First, play this song below, which is contemplative, triumphant, evocative. As you’re listening, read on to the end.

What’s for dinner? Turkey? Ham? Both?
What about those sides? Greens? What kind? Mashed potatoes? Yams? Corn on the cob? Gravy? Biscuits? Cornbread? Cranberry sauce?
Look down at your plate. What’s on it? Who served you?
Who will you have over? The kids? Your folks? In-laws? Friends? Neighbors? Co-workers?
What about your elders? Your grandmother? Grand-dad? Great-aunt? Distant cousins?
Are you trying to help someone? Maybe you took in someone who’s away from home? Or assisting at a shelter?
You’re sitting down now. Who’s next to you on either side?
Who’s saying grace? What are they saying? What should this year’s grace include?
Some thoughts for those who couldn’t be here, right?
Now … pause for a moment … and keep that feeling. It’s gratitude, appreciation, triumph, success, faith, optimism, strength, joy, and more.
Evoke that, let that guide you, whenever you feel anxious, or distracted. About anything. You have so much going for you. So does your country. So does your world. All the possibilities! This is just the beginning!
So … stay focused on that and that alone.
And realize that you make history now. -Claude Johnson of Black Fives

Courtesy of Precise Minds Inc.