Visualize your goals

Visualizing your goals helps you push through the fear that keeps you from dealing with change.

Why do so many of us – like Hem and Haw – get blindsided by big changes? It’s fear. Fear is what makes confronting change so difficult.

After all, change requires you to cope with a new situation and grapple with a new set of rules. That can be both disorienting and frustrating, so it’s natural to be scared of change.

For example, once they came to grips with the empty Cheese Station C, Hem and Haw had to venture again into the maze to find food. They worried that they might get lost, or find themselves in a blind alley with no way out. 

But remember this: as long as you’re afraid of leaving your comfort zone, things will never get better.

Imagine that your partner has left you, or that an injury is keeping you from playing your favorite sport. The loss you feel – of love, of movement – can be devastating.

You won’t be able to recover, however, until you find a new way to fill your life with things that bring you joy again. This means that you necessarily have to look for something new.

Even though Hem and Haw were hungry, they were still too fearful to explore new paths in the maze. Instead, they smashed down the walls of Cheese Station C to see if there was something to eat behind them! But all in vain.

Haw eventually discovered a good way to deal with his fear. He visualized himself sitting atop a huge wedge of his favorite cheese, soft-rind French Brie.

Indeed, visualizing your goal in vivid detail will actually increase your desire to attain it. So if you find yourself stuck, or you can’t tame your fear, visualize your goal. That will stoke your desire and give you the energy to move forward.