In my example I saw a movie that started with me walking up to shake the hand of a realtor out the front of the enormous home. I saw the colours of the blue sky and the color of flowers in the garden. I saw the outfit I was wearing as well as that of my girlfriend who was present in the picture.

Now it’s time to move onto your audible modalities. What can you hear as you are achieving this goal? How loud are the sounds? When I did this I heard myself talking to the realtor about the purchase. I then spoke to my girlfriend about how great it was that we finally had this awesome house. Make the sounds as detailed as possible too. Can you hear any noises in the background like birds chirping or a car driving past?

Again fiddle with the Submodalities now. Make the sounds louder and more clear, like you would hear them if you were actually there. We are trying to create the experience of what it will be like when (not if, WHEN) you are actually there.

Now move to your kinesthetic modalities, things you will actually FEEL as you are experiencing achieving your goal. Is there a breeze blowing that you can feel on your face? Are you touching anything or anyone? Can you feel the warmth of the sun on your skin? Whatever it is, feel the feelings you would feel. Make them feel as real as possible in your mind.

Finally try to think what you would be thinking at the time? What would you be thinking and feeling mentally as you achieve your goal? Maybe an excitement that it’s finally happened? Maybe a sense of accomplishment? Perhaps anticipation? Maybe you feel a sense of freedom or happiness or fulfillment? Whatever it is, let the you in the movie think and feel those same feelings.

By now you should be feeling pretty darn good! This is as close as you can possibly be to actually achieving your goal. You should be now thinking, hearing, seeing, and touching everything as you would if you were actually there having it happen. And as a consequence you should be starting to feel those same feelings while you sit and picture! You can have the feeling without even having the goal (but that’s another story).

This movie that you have created can be extremely motivating. Try recreating the movie whenever you feel a lack of motivation toward that goal, or even first thing in the morning if you find that empowering.

Take some time each day to relive this experience and reenact your goal. You will find it becomes clearer with each repeated visualization. Eventually it should feel so real to you that when you think about it while not visualizing, it will start to feel like it actually has happened, in other words the visualized experience will start to seem like an ACTUAL experience. Remember everything in the world started as a figment of someone’s imagination, a visualization.

It is this clear and continual visualization (or use of the compelling future technique) that takes the goal from just that, to a physical reality.

Andrew Hansen is an entrepreneur, author and personal development trainer. He runs a website dedicated to personal growth that provides tips, information and advice on attaining the level of success that you're worthy of in all areas of your life. For more information on NLP please see NLP