Recently I started visualizing my lifts before making them. I started with the 145 standing press last week. Then the deadlifts, and today with the squats.
Usually I stand in front of the bar between sets and just stare it down (sometimes I'll pace back and forth, but that doesn't help the story, so I chose to leave it out), but instead of just staring it down I close my eyes and imagine the perfect set.
Today, for instance, I stood in front of the squat rack, my feet spread to approximately squatting width, my arms down by my sides and my entire body completely relaxed. I tune out everything going on around me (including the smoking hot girls on the cardio machines, which was difficult). I close my eyes and let my eyelids relax. I picture myself (I'm seeing it through my own eyes, not standing a few feet away looking at my body. I'm seeing it as if I'm living it) standing in front of the bar. I tense up my legs/back/abs. I grab the bar, duck under, pull my shoulder blades back, take a breath into my stomach and brace my abs against it. I stand up as if the bar weighed nothing, I take a step back, I take a quick breath into my stomach and I drop, controlled. Once I pass parallel, I push my back into the bar, I pull my head back and I squat up. Then I rerack the weight, and proceed to tell myself what a stud I am for making that weight.
I don't just picture myself doing it though. I feel the movement. I feel the force that I need to put into the bar. I feel it running through my muscles, even though I'm just standing there relaxed. I feel the effort. I feel the bar on my back. I feel the pain, the wonderful pain. I feel that feeling of success and pride that comes after completing a
PR lift.
Then, I do it.
I can't begin to tell you how much of a difference this has made. It sounds really stupid (even to me as I'm typing this right now) but it really, really makes every rep a hell of a lot easier.
I highly recommend trying this.