Yue’s experiment, when neuroscientists found no difference between performing an action and merely imagining oneself performing that action—the same neuronal circuits fire in either case. This means that visualization impacts a slew of cognitive processes—motor control, memory, attention, perception, planning—essentially accelerating chunking by shortening the time it takes us to learn new patterns. Since the first stage of the flow cycle—the struggle stage—involves exactly this learning process, visualization is an essential flow hack: it shortens struggle.
