What mini-movies are playing in your head right now? Are you just watching them, or are you taking control as the director of the movies?

Tiger Woods is possibly the greatest golfer of all time. When he enters a professional golf tournament he already pictures himself winning the tournament before he walks up to the first tee on the first day.

Jack Nicklaus was criticized for taking a long time on the green to line up his putt. He said he wouldn’t hit the ball until he could mentally see the ball dropping in the cup.

What is the picture in your mind before you begin an important task? I have worked with literally thousands of business people and professional athletes across the country, and I discovered a very significant fact.

For instance, I have found that the vast majority of sales people in any field expect every prospect to say "no" to them. They are literally shocked when they get a "yes" at the end of their presentation. Their expectation is a conditioned response.

Psychologists say that our personalities are well formed by the time we reach the age of 4. When I ask a group of people what two words a toddler hears most often in his or her early years, and the response is always "no" and "don’t". Our mind has been programmed by repetition to expect to hear "no" whenever we ask for something. No wonder so few sales people are as successful as they deserve to be.

On the other hand, the top professional sales persons expect to hear the "yes", and are shocked if the prospect responds in any other manner.

The good news is that we already have the power to overcome our early conditioning by changing the mini-movies playing in our mind’s eye.

I was doing some field training with a salesman recently, and we were about to get out of his car to meet with his prospect for a sales presentation. I then asked him to tell me what was going to happen when we went in. His reply was, "This is going to be a tough sale because…", and he went on to describe all the objections he expected to hear.

I stopped him and said, "I want you to have a different picture in your mind before we go in". I told him to close his eyes and picture the prospect with a big smile on his face, saying , "This is the best decision I have made all year", as he signed the paperwork. I had him focus on that scene in his mind’s eye for a few minutes before we went in to the appointment. The meeting went exceedingly well, with a successful sale as a result. The salesman told me that our visualization routine was the major factor in the achieving the positive outcome. He continues to benefit from that little exercise now before every presentation.

Before you undertake anything significant task in your life, review the movie playing in your mind. How do you picture the outcome? Is it really what you want to have happen? If not, then be the Steven Spielberg of your own mental mini-movies and change the image to the outcome you really desire. You will be amazed at how this simple tip can change the results you get in life.