Imagination & Visualization

How Inner Vision Becomes Outer Reality

Jack Nicklaus had game, and he had Imagination. His now famous quote reveals one of the secrets of his success in a sport that has been considered by many to be the most beautiful yet difficult game ever created. What the Golden Bear possessed was Inner Vision– he “never”executed a shot without seeing, within his imagination, what he wanted to happen: from start to finish. Jack discovered what neuroscience has recently confirmed: to execute any complex behavior, you are more likely to be successful by visualizing both the process and outcome – whereby inner vision becomes outer reality.


“I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. First I see the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I see the ball going there; its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there is a sort of fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality.”

~ Jack Nicklaus