The Visualization Advantage

With my pistol at the low ready, I took a breath and a position off to the side of the door and waited. I had imagined this exact scenario countless times, and it was about to pay off.

He had a long silver beard, crazy eyes, dressed in American flag shorts, and fancied himself a presidential candidate. He believed that the FBI, CIA, or other various government agency was listening in at any given moment and that there was a terrorist plot around every corner. He was crazy and he had a police scanner — a truly problematic combination. There was no telling when or where he’d show up next.

Flag On The Play

I was working a swap on Second Shift and regretting every minute of it. I had just cleared a car stop when the bearded crazy guy pulled up next to me to flag me down and demand I go after some suspected terrorists. I had lost count of how many times I had to deal with him. After listening to his rant for several minutes I assured him I would hunt down the insurgents and save America, which was enough to get him out of my hair for the time being. My patience had worn thinner than my favorite pair of underwear. If anyone ever flagged me down again it would be too soon.

Well, a couple minutes later I got flagged down again, and it was too soon. A car suddenly pulled over and a guy hopped out and came running after my cruiser flailing his arms like he was landing a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier. At first, I pretended I didn’t see him, because, like I said, it was too soon. But then my dang conscience got the best of me and I stopped to see what was the matter.

Stop And Rob

With actual fear on his face he told me the convenience store I had just driven past was getting robbed — like, at that very moment. As the information sunk into my brain that this was an actual emergency and not just some crazy guy fighting an imaginary war on terror, I called it in and moved on foot toward the store.

The stop-and-rob was a typical inner city corner store that was run down and papier-mâchéd with cigarette and alcohol advertisements. The windows were almost completely covered with only slivers of glass between the posters. I carefully bobbed and weaved my head until I was able to see inside. The clerk stood back from the register, pressed against the display rack of cigarettes and bags of loose tobacco as the hooded robber greedily rummaged through the register drawer. He had on a dark blue sweatshirt with his hood up and his chin down to hide his face. He appeared to be ignoring the clerk and working fast to get his take to make a quick exit.

This Is Sparta

I chose not to go in because I didn’t know if he had a weapon and didn’t want to create a hostage scenario. I drew my pistol, held it at the low ready, stepped back from the door, and waited. With Dispatch updated I took a breath and readied myself. Seconds later he came out and I reacted like a coiled spring. Stepping between him and the store entrance I shouted at him to get on the ground. Both his hands were in his hoodie pockets when he turned and our eyes met. He looked like a deer in the headlights. It was obvious he had been completely taken by surprise. I gave him half a second to comply before I delivered a good old fashioned Spartan kick to his stomach and knocked him flat on his back.

He was in such shock from the ambush and from getting front-kicked onto the ground that he put up no resistance and was in cuffs in a matter of seconds. The clerk was unharmed and all the money was recovered.

The Edge

There’s nothing special about me. I’m not the fastest, the strongest, or the smartest. I haven’t seen or done it all, don’t have an unbearable amount of massive talent, and I certainly don’t have all the answers. I’m just a regular guy. Even though that was the first and only time I have ever interrupted a robbery in progress, I had run through scenarios like that in my mind countless times before which gave me the edge that I needed to make quick decisions and effect a positive outcome.

If you’ve ever watched the movie Free Solo or read a New York Times bestselling book that was an action-packed adrenaline thrill ride then you know your body physically responds to mental imagery based on what you see, read, or think about. Sure, there’s science behind it but you don’t need a PhD to understand that visualization works.

What It Takes

You also don’t need stretchy pants, a waterfall, or a yoga mat to practice visualization. If you’ve ever been lost in a daydream then you already have what it takes. You can do it driving around in your cruiser, sitting at your desk, or sprouting roots on your living room couch. Building mental models of various scenarios or running yourself through training drills like performing reloads, clearing rooms, and the like, will help you perform at another level. High-achieving athletes in a wide variety of sports use visualization to prepare for competition, and we should too.

But, there are rules.

I. The laws of physics still apply

Be careful that your imagination doesn’t run away with your objective. You can’t fly, don’t have super strength, and your cruiser can’t do Mach 2. If that sounds strange to you, then you might want to beware of the men in white coats. They’re coming for you. But if you understand that the laws of physics still apply as you systematically walk yourself through any given scenario answering the question, What would I do if… your mental rehearsals will pay dividends.

II. This isn’t The Matrix

It can be easy to start out with a completely realistic scenario in your mind and then go down an unrealistic rabbit trail in which you are a martial arts master spin-kicking your way to victory, when in reality you’ve never seen the inside of a dojo. Unfortunately, we can’t download information or skill sets into our brains like Keanu did in The Matrix to operate every weapon system known to man and fly a helicopter. We have to work with the knowledge and the skills that we currently have. Disappointing? Maybe. But that’s the whole point of visualization — to practice and hone the skills that we do have, not to imagine new ones.

III. Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice does

If you begin with incomplete or incorrect information, and practice techniques based on that information, you will get bad results. For example, I played soccer for most of my young life and all throughout high school. I used to think I could pull off a bicycle kick, after all, I had seen them done on TV. I imagined myself doing it perfectly and scoring a historic game winning goal via the ancient art of the bicycle kick, but no one had ever taught me how and I had based my technique on a whole lot of assumptions and the theories of other 16 year olds. One day I attempted a bicycle kick, landed directly on my assumptions, injuring them, and couldn’t walk for a week. The point is that if you practice bad techniques you will perform bad techniques. Begin with the right information, the right techniques, practice them correctly, and then you will get the results that you want and expect.

The Visualization Formula

With those rules in mind here’s a formula you can use when practicing visualization: In situation X, I’ll do Y, in order to achieve outcome Z.

When you have some down time and you’re just driving around, sitting in church, or eating out at a restaurant, ask yourself, What would I do if… and run yourself through scenarios using the visualization formula. Then, change a variable, and repeat. It will make you sharper, more prepared, and allow you to make faster decisions when the moment of truth actually arrives.

Remember, when it counts, you won’t rise to the level of your expectations, you will fall to the level of your training.

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• Do you ever imagine what-if scenarios?
• Which athletes do you admire? Do you know if they use visualization to prepare for competition?
• When is the last time a book, movie, or thought gave you nervous, sweaty palms?
• How can you better harness that kind of visualization to make you better at your job?

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