A personal visualisation story: I was in the last few weeks of completing my masters degree thesis when I had my final meeting with my supervisor. She gave me a provisional grade and I was not happy about it – I needed another 10% in order to get an overall first class honors in my degree.

10% is hard to pick up at this late stage, so I racked my brain for ways to boost my performance. I had put two years of my life, involving a lot of personal sacrifice, into this degree and I didn't want to miss the top grade in the last leg of the race. So I made a decision; I had approximately ten days until final submission – I could surely improve my paper by 1% each day?  Each night I visualised the numbers in my mind – as large as I could fit in my mental movie screen.  I saw my current grade, and imagined the number moving up by 1% each night. By day I worked in the traditional way on my paper, but this mental focus on the numbers helped to keep me on track. I did make the grade, and graduated with a first class honours. 

I credit my powers of visualisation with helping me to achieve something that I am still very proud of.  When the chips are down, you have to marshall all the resources at your disposal, and visualisation is one of the most powerful resources avilable to us.