Visualization, or the art of using all the senses to create a mental movie of what you want to happen, has long been a tool for improving sports performance. Brian Nielsson, an avid kayaker since age 13, discovered the tool as one of his first competitions approached. In preparation for his 500-meter K1 race, he relaxed and then pictured how he would execute the race, with all its attendant feelings, and win. “At the start of the race, I wasn’t even nervous,” he says. “The race played out exactly as I’d seen it in my head.”

Now a former world kayak champion, an entrepreneur, and the founder and board chairman of mobile-solution supplier HandStep, Nielsson still counts visualization, sometimes known as mental rehearsal or guided imagery, as one of the most important tools in his success toolkit. Numerous research studies support mental rehearsal’s enhancement of performance and motivation, according to the online journal of sport psychology, Athletic Insight, and others. For example, research shows that golfers who use imagery techniques practice more, set higher goals for themselves, have more realistic expectations and are better at sticking to their training programs. Beyond that, studies also suggest that visualization can increase “flow,” or the positive mental state marked by a lack of self-consciousness and a union with the task at hand. In sports psychology research, flow has been associated with peak performance. Think of a time when you were so completely absorbed and focused on what you were doing that your self-awareness and worry melted away, and compare that with an occasion where you were worried about your performance or were self-conscious. Quite likely, your performance was much better in the first situation—and with no greater output of effort.

Imagery techniques are increasingly used in fields outside of sports, such as medicine. The concept still seems curiously absent from corporate America, despite the need for innovation (which requires vision) and despite the frenetic pace of change (layoffs, mergers and so on) that leaves many an employee feeling adrift and helpless.

“For some reason visualization is a concept that many business folks tend to dismiss, perhaps due to the preponderance of left-brain thinking in business,” says Thomas Koulopoulos, founder of innovation consultancy Delphi Group. (Left-brain activity is popularly associated with analysis and logic rather than creativity.) Koulopoulos, who leads some clients in visualization exercises, says that the increasing speed of change in the business world is one factor that will quash the prejudice against a practice some may deem touchy-feely. “As uncertainty increases, the time to respond decreases,” he says. In this tumultuous environment you must use visualization “to establish a clear end state that will guide all of the unforeseen decisions that have to be made; so many of the tactical operations involved in achieving that end state will be completely unpredictable.” Or as Mark Twain said, “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”