Vision Quest

Just to unfortunately burst the hopes of old wrestling movie fans, this article is not covering the ballad of Louden Swain versus the seemingly undefeatable Shute. Although a classic movie, this article is going to talk about a different type of vision. Visualization can be thought of as a type of meditation; put simply, you put yourself in a specific scenario and imagine the outcome. This idea is becoming more and more prominent in sports psychology.

Famously, Eddie Hall used this type of visualization to help him be the first person to successfully deadlift 500 kilograms from the ground. He had the help of a sports psychologist, who came up with a scenario that would trigger Eddie’s fight-or-flight response right before he took the platform for his deadlift attempt. 

Is this to say that you need to be attempting a maximal deadlift to benefit from this? No, not at all. Let’s say you have a job interview coming up. It is your dream job, with your dream company, with more pay than you know what to do with (getting strength coaching is always an option…just saying). Naturally, you are a little nervous. The night before, sit down and take a few minutes to give visualization a try. Close your eyes and think as specifically as possible, down to the small details: what you are wearing, the route you’re taking to drive there, what the waiting room will look and smell like, walking into the interview office, shaking the interviewer’s hand, introducing yourself, the temperature of the room, how the chair feels, what questions you expect to get asked, and your answers to those questions. The more detailed you can make this vision, the harder it will be for your brain to realize that this hasn’t actually happened yet. This will help remove some stress around your interview. This will help you perform when it comes to the real interview. To your mind, this has already happened, and it is just replaying past events. 

The mind is a powerful thing, and visualization is just one of the many powerful tools you can use to leverage that power. This isn’t a new idea for me; I've long believed there is something special about the mind. I mean, there is a reason a placebo must take place in studies. One of the earliest memories of this phenomenon is a story from third grade. Matt was the smartest kid in class by GPA, the teachers told us that for some reason. He let it get to his head, like I am sure anyone would at that age. One day in class, we were having multiplication races, two students were at the chalkboard, head-to-head racing to finish writing a selected times table. There was a bracket that the teacher “randomly” came up with, and I pulled Matt in the first round. He started talking about how he should have a by-round, and it’s not even going to be fair; he was going to destroy me; I stood no chance against him. I didn’t say anything. I sat there and absorbed everything he said and concluded that there was no way I would lose to him. I sat calmly, thinking about my walk up to the chalkboard from my seat. Grabbing my piece of chalk, how the chalk felt in my fingertips, the teacher yelling out the times table we had, the feeling of the chalk writing on the chalkboard, and writing the last number on the board before Matt.

When it was our turn at the board, I couldn’t wait to get the chalk in my hands and issue defeat. There were three pieces of chalk on my side. I stood there and waited for the teacher to bark out which times table we would have to write on the board, from 1 to 12. Matt looked confident as ever, smiling and stretching his arms overhead as if that was going to help him regurgitate numbers on the board. “You have the five times table and GO!” the teacher yelled. I immediately started writing, writing so hard and fast I destroyed the first piece of chalk in my hand, I let it drop to the ground, and grabbed another. The second piece lasted me another couple of lines. I dramatically tossed this broken piece of chalk behind me, hitting Kelsey, my crush at the time, directly in the head. I looked over as I grabbed the last piece of chalk, and Matt wasn’t even halfway done. I didn’t let up; I wrote even faster than before. As I wrote the final zero on my last number, the last piece of chalk crumbled and fell out of my hand. I yelled, “DONE!” Stunned, the class screamed that I was already complete. Matt was on 8. Did I magically become ten times smarter than I was minutes before beating him? No. I just refused to accept defeat and removed any sense of doubt I had in myself through visualizing myself finishing first; I gave myself no other option than to finish before him. 

Whether attempting a world record deadlift, going for a job interview, or attempting to beat a third grader at a times table race, visualization is a simple tool you can use to remove some stress and help you perform better. You may find it difficult the first time you try, and that is normal; any form of meditation can be tough the first time. Keep trying; it doesn’t have to be perfect every time. Even just a couple of minutes of thinking about the event can help you be successful.