Watch this picture:

A banana split is an ice cream-based dessert. In its classic form it is served in a long dish called a boat. A banana is cut in half lengthwise (hence the split) and laid in the dish. There are many variations, but the classic banana split is made with scoops of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream served in a row between the split banana. Pineapple topping is spooned over the vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup over the chocolate, and strawberry topping over the strawberry. It is garnished with crushed nuts, whipped cream, and maraschino cherries.

Would you dare say," I don't see it?"

And yet it's all words, just words. We use words to create images to share an idea with another. An affirmation or a poem can do the same thing.

Visualization and affirmations are good tools, if you know how to use them. The underlying driver of both is belief. You can repeat an affirmation all day, every day for a month and if you still don't believe it...you will get no benefit from it. The same is true for visualization.

The fact that you can "picture" something in your mind does not guarantee that you're going to get the result. You have to have a strong enough belief, which then guides accurate knowledge and thinking. This will stimulate action and commitment, which will eventually lead to the desired result.

How do you generate the belief? There are several ways, but the most effective seems to be meditation. In meditation, you connect with your inner self, which is the source of belief. Thoughts and pictures are not involved. There is just awareness.

What this means is that you have to actively work on three levels: the physical, the mental, and the spiritual. You generate belief at the spiritual level. You use affirmations and visualizations on the mental level. And you take action on the physical level. That leads to desired results.

Let's take this a step further. Think about the person who writes affirmations cards and posts them on their mirror. This person may also cut out pictures and hang these up as well. If affirmations and visualizations work, this seems like a good idea.

While these practices can have some value if used correctly, in most cases you'll find that this person really does not believe the things they are hanging on their mirror. In fact, everyday they have a reminder of the things they don't have. They are literally trying to convince themselves of things they really don't believe.

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. You can absolutely enhance affirmations and visualizations. Creating a vision board is a great tool. But, what matters is the belief you assign to the things on the vision board. Are you using the vision board and the affirmation cards as an aide or a crutch?

One person will get great results from these activities while another will get no results at all. The only difference between the two is belief.