Journal Entry #10

In this activity, you will visualize the accomplishment of one of your most important goals or dreams. Once you vividly picture this ideal outcome, you will have strengthened your commitment to achieve it, and you will know how to do the same thing with all of your goals and dreams.

1. Write a visualization of the exact moment in the future when you are experiencing the accomplishment of your biggest goal or dream in your role as a student. (career)

I am dressed in a black pencil skirt and a white button up blouse. It smells like air freshener and paper. I have my clipboard and paper ready when a young boy walks in and tells me he has been going down the wrong path, and that he is ready to turn his life around and change it. Finally, my first client as a mental health nurse. All I've ever wanted was to help people and now its finally happening. He is telling me how he wants to enroll back in school and find a job, and I assure him that I will help him achieve those goals. So he sits down and we start talking. He starts to tell me about his past and how he got to be the way he is now. I find out information on why he made the decisions he did based on the details of his past. As our session comes to an end, he thanks me and tells me he has a really good feeling about meeting with me. I feel completely satisfied and accomplished. I'm finally able to start making differences in people's lives.

For visual appeal, consider also drawing a picture of your goal or dream in your journal. Or cut pictures from magazines and use them to illustrate your writing. If you are writing in your journal on a computer, consider adding clip art that depicts your visualization. Allow your creativity to support your dream.

Remember the four keys to an effective visualization:
1. Relax to free your imagination
2. Use present- tense verbs... the experience is happening now!
3.Use all five senses. What do you see, hear, smell, taste, feel, and touch?
4. Include emotion.

Read your visualizations often. Ideal times are right before you go to sleep and when you first awake in the morning. You may even wish to record your visualizations and listen to them often.