Imagination · “Feel It Real”
Picturize
Vividly picture the desired result as already accomplished and hold that image with faith, as the middle step of Peale’s ‘prayerize, picturize, actualize’ formula.
Prayerize: bring it to God, drop it in his hands.
- Picturize: see the outcome already achieved, concrete and clear.
- Hold it with calm faith; refuse failure-images.
- Actualize: act on it; pair the picture with real steps.
What it is
The middle term of Peale’s three-step formula, “Prayerize, Picturize, Actualize“ (from “Try Prayer Power”). To picturize is to form a clear mental picture of your goal as already achieved and to hold that image steadily, with faith, rather than picturing failure or the problem.
Peale’s phrase elsewhere: “Picture yourself succeeding.” Among the many imagery practices in this lineage, Peale’s distinctive framing is that the image is submitted to God in prayer — picturizing is bracketed by prayerize (before) and actualize (after), so it is faith-imaging, not bare manifestation.
The Method
- Prayerize first. Bring the matter to God in plain prayer and “drop the problem in God’s hands” (see the prayerize practice).
- Form the picture of success. See the outcome as already accomplished — yourself succeeding, the situation resolved well. Make it definite and concrete.
- Hold it with faith, not anxiety. The image is held confidently because you have committed it to God; doubt and fear-pictures are refused.
- Don’t picture the negative. Peale is emphatic that imaging failure tends to produce failure; you keep the success-image dominant.
- Actualize. Then act — picturing and praying, in Peale’s account, “leads to the wish becoming a reality” as you also take practical steps. (Sourcing note: “Prayerize, picturize, actualize” and “Picture yourself succeeding” are Peale’s, short fair-use quotation; surrounding steps paraphrase “Try Prayer Power”.)
Source & Lineage
The Power of Positive Thinking (1952), chapter “Try Prayer Power”, where the prayerize-picturize-actualize formula is given. Peale takes the New Thought “mental image / hold the vision” technique (cf. Wattles’ clear mental image, Behrend’s mental picture) and folds it inside a prayer frame, making the image an object of faith rather than will alone.
Common refinements
End-state fantasy without action. The fantasy-realization research (Oettingen) shows pure success-daydreaming can sap effort. Peale’s own “actualize” step is the corrective: always pair the picture with doing.
- Picturing the fear. Catching yourself imaging failure and deliberately swapping the image is half the practice.
- Anxious gripping. If the image is held with white-knuckle desperation it breeds doubt; the prayerize step is meant to relax the hold (“drop it in God’s hands”).
- Vague image. Make it specific and sensory enough to feel real.