Visualize your success
“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.”
– William Arthur Ward
Did you know that many successful people, including professional athletes, use visualization techniques? How can you harness the power of this technique? Imagining, or visualizing your completed goal helps you focus, it aligns your thinking and may even engage your subconscious in your attempt to reach your goals. Each morning when you wake, and each evening when you are going to sleep, spend a few moments thinking about your goal and imagining that you have already successfully completed it. Make a mental movie! You should spend about 10-20 minutes ‘watching’ yourself be successful. Attempt to imagine how it will feel to accomplish the goal, you want to get your emotions involved!
Try this - write each of your goals on a sticky note, flash card, or take a picture to keep in your phone. Every morning and night, look at each goal, close your eyes and imagine your goal completed. Move onto the next goal until you have gone through all of them. You might want to set a reminder on your phone until this becomes a habit.
Learn more about visualization techniques
Create a goal poster/vision board to help visualize your goals
Create a mantra or affirmation
Daily affirmations can battle and even silence that inner critic that prevents us from reaching our goals. Creating a positive statement and then repeating it often, can change the way you think about yourself and help stop the sabotage of the inner voice. You can develop your own that are specific to your goals, or you can use technology to assist you. For affirmations to be effective at changing our thinking, they need to be cited, often. Start and end your day saying or thinking your affirmation, and don’t hurry the process.
Here is an app that can help!
Here is a short video are three simple goal setting strategies, including creating a mantra:
Read Inspirational quotes
It is helpful to know that others have struggled too, and yet have achieved success. You can do this too! Successful people can inspire us with their words and lessons so reading these when you are struggling to study, to go to class, to write that paper might just help!
Inspirational quotes for college students
Apps for daily inspirational quotes: Android or iPhone
Draw your future
Here is a another excellent technique to help you reach your goals. Watch this brief video and then try this technique. Be sure to hang your artwork somewhere you will see it often, or take a picture and store it in your phone for immediate use when you need your inspiration! Note - You do not have to be an artist.