Successful people literally see the world differently. Now an award-winning scientist explains how anyone can leverage this “perception” gap to their advantage.

When it comes to setting and meeting goals, we are often susceptible to perceptual illusions: We think we are closer or further away depending on our mindset, and we might handicap ourselves by looking only at the big picture or too long at the fine detail. But as award-winning social psychologist Emily Balcetis explains in Clearer, Closer, Better, there is great power in these misperceptions—if we know how to use them to our advantage.

Drawing on her own unique research and cutting-edge discoveries in vision science, cognitive research, and motivational psychology, Balcetis gives readers an unprecedented account of the perceptual habits, routines, and practices that successful people use to set and meet their ambitions. Through case studies of entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, and celebrities—as well as her own colorful experience of trying to set and reach a goal—she brings four powerful yet largely untapped visual tactics to life:

Narrow your focus: Closing the aperture of your attention can help with exercising more effectively or losing weight.

Widen the bracket: Seeing the “forest for the trees” is the trick to retirement savings as well as finding more time in the day.

“Materializing” works: Checklists and objective assessments are the best ways to track progress and gauge what’s really left to be done (vision boards not so much).

Take control of your frame of reference to read others’ emotions, negotiate better deals, improve relationships, and even overcome a fear of public speaking.

A mind-blowing and original tour of perception, Clearer, Closer, Better will help you see the possibilities in what you can’t see now. Inspiring, motivating, and always entertaining, it demonstrates that if we take advantage of our visual experiences, they can lead us to live happier, healthier, and more productive lives every day.