109Sometimes in my seminars on motivation, people ob-
serve that they “don’t have time” for goal setting. But the
four-circle system I described takes only four minutes!
Once during a workshop on goal setting, I asked if
anyone in the audience had any interesting experiences
with visualization. We had been discussing sports psy-
chologist Rob Gilbert’s observation that “losers visual-
ize the penalties of failure, and winners visualize the
rewards of success.”
A young couple shared a story about how they had
wanted for years to buy their own home but never got
the money together to do it. Then one day, after read-
ing about the practice of “treasure-mapping” (posting
pictures of what you want in life somewhere in your
office or home), they decided to put a picture on their
refrigerator of a new house, the kind they dreamed of
owning.
“In less than nine months, we’d made the down pay-
ment and moved in,” said the amazed husband. His wife
added, “Alongside the photo of the house we eventually
put a little thermometer that we filled in as our savings
toward a down payment grew.”
I have heard many similar stories about how trea-
sure-mapping has worked for people. I have also read
books and attended seminars that explain why. Most of
them discuss what happens to the subconscious mind
when you send it a picture of something you want. Be-
cause the subconscious mind only communicates with
vividly imagined or real pictures, it will not seek to
bring into your life anything you can’t picture.
Without advertising our goals to ourselves, we can
lose sight of them altogether. It is possible to go an
entire week, or two or three, without thinking about
our main goals in life. We get caught up in reacting
Advertise to yourself