The Power of Visualization: Ashanti Johnson at TEDxWillowCreek (Transcript)

In this TEDx Talk, fitness instructor Ashanti Johnson shares her story of what happens when you allow your vision to reveal itself fully, unabridged.

TRANSCRIPT:

So every morning as I was getting ready for work, I would have my favorite cup of coffee and I would enjoy it on my balcony. It was my ritual.

I would sit down and instead of looking out at the amazing view I had, I would look down at the parking lot and imagine that one day it would be my fitness gym’s parking lot.

It was 2009 and the height of the recession. And while everybody is seeking stability, on the level of their family and their job, I was having these intense visions of my potential and fitness.

And so… I mean they were crowding everything that I was doing. I could not stop thinking about fitness. And so, one day without approval from my family, my bank account, my landlord, I went ahead and I resigned.

And then next Monday I was out teaching boot camp; that was the parking lot. I was out teaching boot camps with 16 ladies at the beach.

You know, every single morning for a full year before I decided to make that decision to leave my job, I was out there visualizing. It didn’t stop after I made that decision. And in fact, it intensified.

I think because I was taking the steps towards the vision, it was being unfolded even more. Every vision would unfold just a little bit more and it was becoming real.

You know, I remember having this — this lucid dream where you’re asleep but you’re like awake also within the dream. And I was teaching a bootcamp class and after it was over I asked everybody to sit down and do what we do now — these mental Fitness seminars where we were talking about the things that makes us want to eat when we’re not even hungry.