Imagination · “Feel It Real”
Goal-Realization
Decide clearly what you really want, form it into a definite mental image, then mentally accept it as already granted — conceiving it, believing in it, and confidently expecting it — so that acceptance, not striving, becomes the operative act.
Goal-Realization: Choose what you really want (honestly, specifically) → clear the contrary assumptions → conceive it (clear image of the end) → believe in it (it’s possible and meant for you) → confidently expect it (settled certainty it’s coming) → dwell in the realized goal daily and take the matching action. “Choose what you really want, for you will surely get it.”
What it is
This is Jack Ensign Addington’s method from All About Goals and How to Achieve Them. Its premise is that “goal-achievement is governed by definite mental laws and not by luck or chance” — so the decisive work is mental: you first choose what you genuinely want, then you mentally accept it as already yours.
Addington’s compact formula is that whatever you can conceive of, believe in, and confidently expect for yourself must necessarily become your experience. He pictures a chosen goal as “a mold into which the energy of life flows” — without a goal there is no mold, so the energy of life “drifts and gets nowhere.” The practice is less about willpower or planning and more about acceptance: settling the mind into the felt reality of the goal already realized.
The Method
Faithfully described from Addington’s teaching (short attributed phrases only):
- Choose what you really want. Be honest and specific — “choose what you really want, for you will surely get it.” Vague or borrowed goals do not form a mold.
- Create the right thought-atmosphere. Clear out the contrary assumptions (“I can’t,” “not for someone like me”) that would contradict the goal; set a constructive inner climate first.
- Conceive it. Form a clear, definite mental image of the goal achieved — picture the end, the having-arrived, not the striving.
- Believe in it. Move from picturing to conviction: accept that it is genuinely possible and meant for you.
- Confidently expect it. Hold the settled expectancy of someone who knows it is coming — this is the operative state Addington stresses, the mental acceptance that lets the goal “become your experience.”
- Dwell in the realized goal daily, then act. Return to the accepted end briefly each day to keep the mold intact, and take the practical steps that a person who expected this result would naturally take. (Sourcing note: phrases such as “choose what you really want, for you will surely get it,” “conceive of, believe in, and confidently expect,” and “a mold into which the energy of life flows” are Addington’s, given here as brief attributed quotation, not full reproduction.)
Source & Lineage
Jack Ensign Addington (1915-1998), lawyer turned New Thought minister and co-founder (with Cornelia Addington) of the Abundant Living Foundation, taught “constructive thinking” to a wide radio and magazine audience.
All About Goals applies his causal-mind premise specifically to ambition and supply, framing goal-setting as “an art and a science” governed by mental law. It sits in the Religious Science / Science of Mind tradition where imagination and assumption are creative faculties.
The Traditions' versions
The shared idea — picture the end, assume it as real, expect it confidently — is the spine of New Thought goal work; Addington’s version is distinctive in compressing it to the three-beat acceptance test (conceive / believe / expect) and in leading with the act of choosing what you truly want: - Definite treatment for a goal (Ernest Holmes) — a structured spiritual-mind treatment that realizes the goal as present truth; Addington’s is lighter and centres on confident expectancy.
- Clear mental image (Wallace Wattles) — hold a clear picture of the thing you want with faith and purpose; Addington’s “conceive” step is this.
- The goal-setting method (Brian Tracy) — write, date, and plan the goal, then act daily; Tracy foregrounds the plan, Addington the acceptance.
- Mental contrasting / outcome-expectancy (psychology) — vividly imagining the desired future, paired with belief in attainability, raises commitment and effort.
Common refinements
Picturing the wanting, not the having. Conceive the goal achieved and rest in expectancy; rehearsing the lack reinstalls the lack.
- Accepting in mind, drifting in action. Acceptance is the operative state, but Addington still expects you to act; expectancy without footwork tends toward passivity. Take the steps a person who expected this would take.
- An unbelievable goal. If belief (step 4) won’t come, the target is too far for now — set a believable nearer goal and let it become the mold.
- Skipping the thought-atmosphere. Contrary assumptions silently cancel the goal; clear them first.
- Constant checking. Anxiously monitoring “is it working yet?” is doubt, which contradicts confident expectancy. Set the mold, then live as if.