Affirmation and Visualization Discussion

 Let’s create an affirmation and visualization around that activity. As you may recall from Covey, “A good affirmation has five basic ingredients: It’s emotional, it’s personal, it’s positive, it’s present tense and it’s visual” (pp 140 & 141). Covey gives you one example; I’ll give you another.

undefined

For me, completing research is a Quadrant II activity. Suppose I am committed to working on research every day for minimally 90 minutes, but frequently I experience interruptions, which causes me to lose focus and thus become less productive during my research time. To use Quadrant II time most effectively, I need to identify an affirmation that will help me avoid the frustration of interruptions and then visualize how I might accomplish it.

undefined

Affirmation: I feel (emotional) very productive (positive) during my research time when I (personal) work (present tense) uninterrupted.

undefined

Visualization: I then visualize (visual) the peacefulness of early mornings in my office, before the phone begins to ring and my email begins to ding. I can feel myself at the computer building upon yesterday’s work. As I quickly become engrossed in the work I am doing, I lose track of time. Before I know it, my timer goes off and I feel good about the research progress I have made.