Brain hack one: visualisation
The evidence behind mental rehearsal, plus how you want to spend your money, time and energy.
The power of visualisation
Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to reorganise itself, so it can learn how to respond to events. Visualisation encourages your brain to learn and change, especially when it involves imagining your actions in intense sensory detail, from the perspective of actually doing the action.
Imagining is a simulation exercise
Your brain can simulate situations and anticipate outcomes to compare courses of action. Neuroscience shows imagining your actions is processed in the same way as if it were really happening. The same neural pathways activate. Other brain regions inhibit the physical action, but the emotional experience is the same as reality (which is why movies are so captivating). This means you can mentally rehearse the actions you want as often as you like.
Sports: athletes combining physical practice with visualisation outperform those who only train physically (Guillot & Collet, 2008).
Strength: mentally rehearsing contractions produced measurable strength gains: 13.5% vs 30% for physical training (Ranganathan et al., 2004).
Public speaking: visualising a successful speech reduced anxiety and improved delivery (Ayres, 1995).
What about imagined success?
Many people visualise the build-up (the preparation) but skip the part where they actually succeed. That matters. Imagining success:
- Strengthens your brain’s feedback loops
- Activates the same neural pathways as real success
- Triggers your brain’s reward (dopamine) system
- Boosts confidence and self-belief
- Reduces performance anxiety
- Sharpens goal clarity
- Aligns your behaviour with your identity
- Sparks creative problem-solving
- Makes success feel closer
Think, then write: money, time, energy
Four more questions
- What do I want to spend my money on?
- What do I want to spend my time on?
- What do I want to spend my energy on?
- What do I give other people? (often it’s what you want or lack for yourself)
Five minutes per question
Write without judgement. If stuck, ask “What else?” or “What would childhood me say?” or “What would older me say?”
Imagine your Next Version of Me: Exercise 1.5
Spend it the way you want
Reread what you wrote about how you want to spend your MONEY, TIME and ENERGY. Imagine for 5 minutes spending them on what you want and giving to others. Make it vivid, detailed, multi-sensory, emotional. Play it like a movie trailer.
Give your Next Version of Me a score out of 10 and note it down: “NEXT ME <score>”, e.g. NEXT ME 10
Repeat at least once more today.
Well done! See you tomorrow.
This course is educational and not a substitute for therapy or medical advice.