The "No Stress News" Article ArchiveStress, Imagination and Fantasy, and Achieving your Goals© 2006 Dvora Ifat and Shunit Ben-TzviIf you've read the "Amazing Formula", you know that you can use guided imagination to relax and relieve stress. If you haven't read it, you can get it here (it's free). Now that you've definitely read the Amazing Formula, and know that you can use your imagination to relax, you also know that only using your imagination doesn't change the situation you're in. Just imagining doesn't magically pull you out of a stressful situation. But imagination is the first step to making a change. How? When talking about stress management, relieving stress is the first step to managing stress (like in the Amazing Formula). The next steps are explained in "No Stress". When talking about making a change, in stress or any other area of your life, about achieving goals of any kind, imagination is vital: For you to make a change, you need to be able to see yourself in a different way, in a different place, in a different situation. You need a **vision**. A vision is nothing more than seeing a better future in your mind's eye. A vision is an imagined future. This is where imagination kicks in. What's the difference between imagination and fantasy? When we use our imagination, we see things in a new, different light. We see what we want to see, but it's always something that's possible, or could be possible, if we create the right circumstances. Fantasy, on the other hand, leads us to a wonderful new world. We may find this new world extremely interesting and welcome, but we don't consider it possible. We won't do anything to try and make this world come true, because it's not a possibility as far as we're concerned. Would you like an example? Yes? OK, here's one: If I dream about being a famous movie star, but don't do anything to become one, it's a fantasy. It's not that being a movie star is impossible. It's a fantasy to me because I'm not doing anything about it, and I don't intend to. I may really want to be a movie star, and I may think it could be awesome, but I do nothing but fantasize about it. If, on the other hand, I make a decision to be a star and take action, I would: take acting classes, go to Hollywood, and start by being an extra. I would look for every opportunity to make a two-second-appearance, and so on. As an addition to the physical actions I listed above, it would be a good idea for me to use guided imagination over and over again, and imagine my next step being a success: succeeding in a small role, then in a bigger one. I would have a plan of action, which I would accompany all along with guided imagination. Guided imagination would be part of the action I take, since the body doesn't tell reality apart from imagination. The feeling of success, of being where I want to be, has an important role in achieving my goal. So, to achieve our goals, we need to have a vision of ourselves achieving them. It doesn't matter what your goal is:
...you need to be able to see yourself achieving your goal in order to actually achieve it. Taking your goal from fantasy status to vision status is something many of us find difficult to do. But there are people out there who know how to do it, and they're kind enough to share. Two of these people are Stuart Lichtman and Joe Vitale. They've written a book called "How to get lots of money for anything - fast!" where they show you how to use guided imagination to achieve your goals - no matter what they are. I've read it myself, and I can personally tell you: it's awesome! If you're stuck, this is definitely the way to go. You can get your copy here: http://www.nostressebook.com/guidedimagination.html Once you have a clear vision of your new world, making it happen is so much easier! When you have a vision, you can take the necessary actions, and get to where you want to be.
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