Have you ever thought about what a memory is?  Think about it for a minute.  It’s not like it’s something that you can physically pick up, turn over, and hand to another person.  And yet memories have the ability to effect us in incredible ways.  Even though they only exist in our mind’s eye.

What many of us fail to realize is that we can use the power of memories BEFORE the event associated with the memory even exists.  A memory is nothing more than the imprinting of some experience on our mind.  With very, very few exceptions (e.g. a scar from a bad fall), the only physical existence of a memory is deep inside our minds.  That memory is based on how we perceived the experience.  It’s recorded based on how we processed the sight, sound, smell, taste, and feel (both mental and physical) of the experience.  The most vivid memories normally involve intense sensory experiences.   To create a new memory you simply need to “have the experience”.  And that experience can be just as real when it plays out solely in your mind.

That’s why meditation and visualization techniques are so powerful.  That’s why one of my all time favorite quotes is Steven Covey’s “All things are created twice.  First mentally, then physically”.  When you are trying to get to a new place, the best way to shorten the length of travel is to go ahead and “arrive” there in your mind NOW.  Picture the desired end state.  Close your eyes.  Put yourself in the state.  Walk around.  Look.  Hear.  Smell.  Taste.  Feel.  Really, think about what’s going on at this moment.  The most successful people normally have a “vision” of the future.  What they really have is a pre-made memory.  They’ve taken the future and put it in their mind already.  And that’s why folks that have the ability to create memories beforehand have the ability to do incredible things.

With that in mind: