It’s not enough to visualize yourself succeeding, you need to seed those visualizations with emotions
by Carole Dean
In our Film Funding Guidance Class for our fiscally sponsored filmmakers, we’re currently reviewing the book, Mind Power by John Kehoe. The book teaches us about the power of visualizations in achieving success and how to apply them in your life.
John believes that one of the secrets to achieving success is to visualize everything that would or could happen to you and live as if it really is happening. You should see yourself in situations that normally give you difficulty.
In this visualization, you should see yourself at ease confident and performing well. You might picture your friends and associates complimenting you, congratulating you on your newfound confidence.
“Seeding” Your Visualizations
“Seeding” is adding feelings. Feelings with visuals are like movies with soundtracks. They are more passionate, more emotional and contain lots of good energy.
You should visualize your success using emotions like completion, pride, confidence, enthusiasm, and most importantly, faith. Faith that this will happen, faith that your future belongs to you, and faith that you will successfully manifest your vision.
Remember the film, Bruce Almighty, when Jim Carrey was God and prayers were yellow post its? He would find his room full of those yellow post it’s each morning. Then he would go to work answering prayers. I think that seeding them with emotions would turn the post its from yellow into hot pink so they would stand out.
Emotions are powerful. Please be sure to use emotions when you are visualizing. Send your visions to the universe with tons of “feeling.”
Shakespeare said “My words fly up; my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” Shakespeare knew that you had to have “feelings” with thoughts to bring you the future you want.
Visualize Your Pitch Presentation Before You Pitch.
A few days before you go to pitch your film, you should take the time to start visualizing your meeting. See yourself in an over the shoulder shot. You are pitching your film. Your potential donor is smiling and nodding their head like they’re enjoying and receiving the information you’re sending.
See yourself with pride, enthusiasm, and confidence. You should take this into your meditation and visualize the outcome you want with emotions. Please remember how powerful emotions are and put a lot of emotion in this visualization.
You should be prepared for them to ask you questions. I want you to feel very proud of yourself because you have the answers. To do this, you want to know what your budget is and be able to defend it. You want to know where this film will be distributed. You want to explain where this donor or investor will see your film.
See Your Future and Claim It.
Be fully prepared for all kinds of questions and be totally confident that you will get funded. Live with that belief; that you have what you want.
You need to “feel” successful, to “feel confident.” Let these feelings be part of your vision.
Remember, all we have is the present. Do not say, “I will have,” that puts it in the future. Please pretend it is real this very moment. You are living your dream. You are living with the life you want to live in your mind. Keep that thought as present not future.
In Mind Power, the author tells us how important affirmations are. He is reminding us that our statements and our constant belief in our achievements are important to us.
“Affirmations,” he says, “are simple statements repeated to yourself silently or aloud. You can do them anywhere, like, in your car, waiting in the doctor’s office, while you are walking, when you are lying in bed before you go to sleep.”
Affirmation’s Work!
With affirmations, you are influencing the thoughts in your mind and filling your mind with thoughts that support your goal.
John suggests when you’re doing your affirmations that you have to be consistent. You want to keep your affirmations going until you have achieved what you are affirming.
I suggest that you use the powerful two words “I am” and start with things like:
- I am an award-winning filmmaker.
- I am fully funded.
- I am having a lot of fun making my film.
- I am getting weekly donations.
- I am receiving surprise donations.
- All the mental work that I am sending to the universe brings me money from sources I never expected.
- I am fully funded.
He suggests you keep your affirmation short, and I fully agree. Use things like:
- I am healthy
- I am wealthy
- I am happy
I love these affirmations because they will get you through any day with lots of joy.
“I Am the Greatest” Worked for Muhammad Ali. It Will Work for You Too!
This is where we need to remember and not to make statements against ourselves like oh, I never do that right.
I’m so sorry I always get it wrong.
I’m a disaster.
These are things you should remove totally out of your vocabulary.
“I am” are the two most powerful words in the dictionary. Especially when used to create your future because they will bring you what you want.
Love Yourself.
We are very quick to see our failures and not our success. John says that when we get successes, we are happy for a few days and then we go back into forgetting our successes.
Let’s make a point of remembering our successes. Let’s reuse that success energy from past achievements again and again and expect very positive results.
For example, let’s suppose you wanted to get into a Film Festival and succeeded. Even if it was three years ago, think about that energy that you felt when you received the notification you had been accepted. That’s the energy you want around you. You want to keep bringing that up that wonderful memory of acceptance and support.
When you get great compliments or when people give you wonderful feedback, please live on that for a weeks. Take it inside you and feel it. Enjoy it.
Let All the Positive Stuff You Hear Stay with You.
You need to be in the place where you feel that you deserve the donation. Be in the place where you know that you have a brilliant project. Where you know that you will complete the project.
By feeling these things and having them as part of your DNA you become the perfect person to give a donation. That’s what people are looking for. They want to support a winner, a creative, they want to support you.
It’s your job to show them you are that creative, that brilliant artist and you deserve to be funded.
When You Are in My Aura; You are Reading My Mind!
People start picking up your thoughts when they get inside your aura and your aura stands 6 feet from your body. When you sit next to someone to talk to them even if you had a table between you, it would probably still be within six feet. You would be in a place where they can read you and they will know how confident you are.
That’s where they start making decisions. They make decisions from their “inner feelings” about you. UCLA Professor Mehrabian, analyzing what makes a successful pitch, said in his research: that only 7% of what you say affects their decision making. 55% of the decision-making process is based on how you walk, how you talk, how you carry yourself, how much confidence you have.
Did you look them in the eye? Are you positive in your statements? Do you sit up straight? Are you a happy person? Are you excited and enthused about your project? Answer “no” to any of those questions and you probably failed on your pitch.
38% of the decision-making process is your voice, how enthusiastic your voice is, and this is most important because people are reading these signals. If you show any depression and uncertainty or lack of knowledge, if your voice quavers, you are creating a feeling of uncertainty.
Watch how you talk. You do not want to say “you know” you do not want to use eeerrr or ahhhhs. These are the things that work against you. The voice and the things you say are 38% of the decision-making process.
You Can See that the Most Important Thing to Work on is You.
You are the film. Shore up your belief in you. You need full self-confidence to close a donation, to get that discount or to hire that person you want.
Ok, you may be thinking, wow, Carole, this is a lot to do. Yes, I know it is but let’s look at the benefits.
Joseph Campbell says: “When you are on the right path, invisible hands will come to your aid.” That’s the prize you get. Don’t try to figure it out. Don’t ask how, just know it will happen.
This is the most important part of creating your future, faith. Your faith must be relentless.
Carole Dean is president and founder of From the Heart Productions; a 501(c)3 non-
profit that offers the Roy W. Dean Film Grants and fiscal sponsorship for independent filmmakers. She hosts the weekly podcast, The Art of Film Funding, interviewing those involved in all aspects of indie film production. She is also the author of The Art of Film Funding, 2nd Edition: Alternative Financing Concepts. See IMDB for producing credits
