TWENTY-ONE TECHNIQUES TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR CONFIDENCE 173
Following that, picture an image of your ideal self, but don’t “jump into” the image yet. Picture yourself and how you want to behave, instead of how you currently do. See those strong, confident gestures, facial expressions, and posture, and make sure that when you think about your ideal self, you feel really motivated to be that way. If you don’t feel a strong sense of motivation, then adjust the image of your ideal self until you do. Make this picture small, dark, and far away at first, and practice making the picture really big, bright, and close as rapidly as you can say out loud, “Swish!” Practice this exercise until you can do it easily. Now what we’re going to do is redirect your mind so that whenever it experiences the cue image, it will automatically flash to your ideal self and therefore draw you into being that person. When you’ve done this successfully, you will see the trigger that used to make you shy and immediately experience an unconscious shift into confidence. Close your eyes and see the cue image in the forefront of your mind. See it big, bright, and close up, just like you would if you were experiencing it for real. In the lower right-hand corner of your vision, see your ideal self-image as smaller, darker, and farther away. Make the “swish” sound, and simultaneously fl ip the two pictures so that the cue image becomes small, dark, and far away as the ideal selfimage becomes really big, bright, and close. Remember to make the “swish” sound as you do this exercise because it will help you unconsciously move the pictures around. Pause for a moment, open your eyes, and then reset the pictures so that you see the cue image big and close and your confident self in the lower right-hand corner. Then make the “swish” sound as you transpose them in the same way you did previously.