110 Strategies for Success in College and Life: Second Edition

© 2016 Mary Zahm and Joan H. Rollins. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/26/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-3996-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-3994-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016915959

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE DEVELOP YOUR IDENTITY: WHO YOU ARE AND WHO YOU WANT TO BE.

Set Personally Meaningful Goals then Have Self-Control and Grit in Order to Achieve Them

Focus on Your Vision for Your Success and Have a Step-by-Step Plan to Stay on Course

Use Positive Self-Talk and Affirmations to Achieve Your Desired Goals

Develop a Growth Mindset to Gain Mastery in Your Course Material

Don’t Try to be Perfect

Attend Class, Sit in the Front, Take Notes, Ask Questions, Be an Active Learner.

Overcome Your Stereotypes. Learn to Appreciate Diversity.

Inoculate Yourself against Stereotype Threat in Order to Perform as well as Possible

Take a Stitch in Time—Proactively Avoid and Offset Potential Problems

Save Samples of Your Personal Best Work for Your Job Portfolios

Be Active in Your College Community

Success Recommendations

CHAPTER TWO LEARN THE RULES OF THE GAME IN COLLEGE

Discover the Potential Benefits of Your College Education

Determine How Prepared You Believe You Are to Succeed in College

Decide if You Will Attend College on a Full-Time or Part-Time Basis

Seek Advice about College Courses You Should Take

Participate in a Learning Community. Be Involved in College Life.

Know Your Degree Requirements. Document Your Progress.

Understand and Follow Your College’s Policies and Code of Conduct

Don’t Fade into the Sunset; Get Help or Officially Withdraw.

Are You a Minority, First Generation, or Slightly Older College Student? If So, Be Successful through Finding Mentors, Focusing on Your Goals, and Using College Resources.

Earn Course Credit for Relevant Educational or Life Experiences

Success Recommendations

CHAPTER THREE READ AND WRITE EFFECTIVELY, OVERCOME TEST ANXIETY, AND ACE YOUR EXAMS.

Read and Follow the Instructions on Your Course Syllabus

Don’t Believe What You Read (Only Once)

Take Handwritten Notes to Better Organize and Remember Your Lecture and Study Notes

Improve Your Note Taking by Using the Cornell Method

Summarize the Text in Your Own Words

Improve Your Test Taking Techniques

Vary Your Study Strategies for Different Types of Exam Questions

Overcome Test Anxiety

Use Self-Affirmations to Help You Detect and Correct Your Performance Errors.

Use the Hamburger Method of Essay Construction, with Particular Attention to the Introduction

Avoid Plagiarism in your Written Assignments

Revise Your Written Work

Master Writing Styles for Courses across the Curriculum

Success Recommendations

CHAPTER FOUR MANAGE YOUR TIME, ENERGY, AND MONEY WISELY

Schedule Your Time to Study

Break Complex Tasks into Manageable Specific Sub-Tasks

Have a Flexible Plan and Reward Yourself for Doing Your Work

Do Not Procrastinate, Save the Best for Last.

Learn to Structure Life on Campus

Avoid Becoming Internet-Dependent

Exercise Daily

Enjoy Dance, Music, and Art to Help You Adjust to College

Get a Good Night’s Sleep to Help You Learn and Remember New Information. Even a Nap or Rest Improves Memory.

Avoid Credit Card Debt

Manage Your Money Wisely

Success Recommendations

CHAPTER FIVE DEVELOP MULTIPLE LEARNING STRATEGIES

Identify the Sensory Perceptual Style You Prefer to Use for Learning, but Use the Best Modality for the Material You Are Studying.

Analyze Your Professors’ Preferred Teaching Styles

Seek Out Experiential Learning Opportunities

Identify the Learning Mode You Have a Tendency to Emphasize

For First-Year Academic Success, Develop Your Executive and Internal Thinking Styles.

Don’t Self-Handicap, It Lowers Your Grades

Realize that Learning of Complex Material Requires Mastery Goals, Deep Processing, and Performance Approach Goals.

Work at Developing a Rational-Analytical Style of Processing and Evaluating Information

If You Have a Learning or Physical Disability, Use Effective Accommodations for Coping with It.

Get a Tutor (either Human or Online) If You Are Having Difficulty Understanding the Material in a Course, or Are Receiving Low Grades.

Develop the Skills You Need to Know to Succeed in Online Courses

Success Recommendations

CHAPTER SIX DEVELOP AND USE METACOGNITIVE SKILLS TO LEARN INFORMATION EFFICIENTLY AND EFFECTIVELY

Understand How Information is Received, Processed, and Used in Working Memory

Use Metacognitive Strategies for Improved Learning and Transfer

Be a Self-Regulated Learner

Use Situational and Cognitive Interventions for Self-Control

Remove Distractions from Your Study Environment

Distribute Your Time Studying over More Episodes of Shorter Duration and Intermingle your Study Materials

Quiz Yourself Right After You Read Material or Attend Class, then Reread What You Are Studying to Improve Learning and Memory

Use Computer Technology to Plan Your Search for Information and Know when Saving Enhances your Memory and Performance

Evaluate Your Chance of being Successful before you Enroll in an Immersion Course

Don’t Drink or Use Marijuana While Studying, Performing, or Being Tested.

Success Recommendations

CHAPTER SEVEN KNOW THYSELF

Develop High Self-Esteem in Personally Valued Areas

Bring Your Real Self Closer to Your Ideal Self

Develop a Complex Self-Concept

Cultivate the Big Five Positive Personality Characteristics

Select Life Roles that Enable You to Express Your True Self

Identify Your Multiple Intelligences and Related College Courses

Explore College Majors that Are Compatible with Your Multiple Intelligences and Career Interests.

Imagine and Write about Many Positive Possible Selves

Develop Self-Efficacy to Accomplish Your Tasks

Develop an Assertive Communication Style

Develop Your Emotional Intelligence

Success Recommendations

CHAPTER EIGHT IMPROVE YOUR CREATIVITY, CRITICAL THINKING, CONSTRUCTIVE THINKING, AND DECISION MAKING SKILLS

Jumpstart Your Creativity

Brainstorm to Think of Creative Solutions to Problems

Don’t Believe Everything You See and Hear

Consider the Possibility that You Might Be Wrong

Develop Critical Thinking and Constructive Thinking Skills

Try to Avoid Sunk Costs

Learn How to Critically Evaluate Information on the Internet

Learn and Use the Rules of Formal Logic to Solve Problems

Use A Rational Approach to Making Decisions

Avoid Making Important Decisions when You Are in a Bad Mood

Be Aware that Decisions You Make in Groups Are More Extreme than Decisions You Would Make By Yourself

Success Recommendations

CHAPTER NINE ACHIEVE YOUR MOST IMPORTANT LIFE GOALS

Prioritize and Act on Multiple Goals According to Your Values

Focus on the Goal You Want to Achieve Rather Than the Failure You Want to Avoid. Have High Hopes of Achieving Your Goals.

Achieve Meaning in Your Life by Selecting Goals that Are Consistent With Your Values, Beliefs, and Talents.

Set Challenging Goals If You Want to Have Higher Earnings in the Future

Experience Flow and Enjoy Your Work

If You Are Having Difficulty Achieving Your Goal, Reassess it to Make Sure It Is the Right Goal for You.

Learn When to Delay Gratification. Self-Control is a Predictor of School Achievement and Employment.

Don’t Cry Over Spilt Milk. Learn from Experience and Change Your Strategy.

Make One Big Change in Your Life That Is Really Important to You Rather Than a Lot of Little Ones

Form Relationships with Others Who Can Help You Achieve Your Goals and for whom You Serve as a Means to their Goal Achievement.

Become Happier by Increasing the Positive Activities in Your Life

Success Recommendations

CHAPTER TEN SELECT AND PREPARE FOR A REWARDING CAREER

Understand How Ability, Self-Efficacy, and Outcome Expectations Affect Your Career Development Process

Identify Your Personality Type, Strengths, and Work Preferences on the Strong Interest Inventory

Complete the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Strong Interest Inventory to Get a Better Perspective on your Career Choice.

Explore Possible Career Paths, Related Salaries, and Working Conditions.

Be Open to Experience and Happenstance in Your Career Decision Making

Proactively Evaluate the Demands of Possible Career Options

Develop Knowledge and Skills that Potential Employers Value

Create a Mentoring Network

Complete Internships to Develop Practical Intelligence (Common Sense) for Career Success

Create a Résumé or Vita to Demonstrate Your Marketability

Be an Effective Leader

Success Recommendations

REFERENCES

Illustrations

Figures

Figures 1.   Mean Total Money Earnings in 2012 for

Full-Time Workers 25 Years or Older by Educational Attainment

Figures 2.   Sample Page for Cornell Note-Taking Method

Figures 3.   Cycle of Success: Positive Self-Efficacy

Figures 4.   Holland’s Model of Personality and Environment Types

Tables

Table 3.   Teaching Methods and Associated Cognitive Reception Styles

Table 2.   Kolb’s Learning Styles and Preferred Learning Situations

Table 3.   Academic Self-Regulation Scale

Table 4.   Multiple Intelligences, Abilities and Interests, and Related

College Courses and Programs

Table 5.   Average Starting Salaries for Top Paying Jobs for 2014 Graduates with

Bachelor’s Degrees

Table 6.   Some of the Fastest Growing Occupations Projected for 2012–2022

Acknowledgments

We want to express our sincere gratitude to our wonderful friends, family members, colleagues, and students who generously gave us permission to write about their life experiences and to include their pictures.

We want to thank Dr. Lorraine B. Dennis, Professor Emerita of Roger Williams University, for reviewing and commenting on drafts of our original manuscript and Kenneth A. Zahm for his technical assistance in preparing that manuscript for publication.

This book is

dedicated to our students who inspired us to write it.

Overview of Contents

Chapter One is designed to prepare students for college motivationally by guiding them to identify a tentative ideal life vision and educational goals, to create and repeat affirmations to keep them motivated to work hard to achieve those goals, and to avoid trying to be perfect or experiencing stereotype threat. It informs students of the need to believe they can succeed through hard work and persistence. Students are instructed to be active learners, to be proactive in handling problems as they arise, and to become engaged in their college community. They are reminded that we are living in a culturally diverse world, country and college community, and that stereotypes are wrong. Students can lower their academic achievement by internalizing stereotypes based on their race, religion, gender or disability. They are encouraged to develop the habit of saving samples of their best work in a portfolio to use for scholarship applications or job interviews in the future.

Chapter Two is designed to prepare students for college in terms of learning the rules of college so that they will have smoother sailing the whole way. Students are reminded of the value of meeting with their advisor to help chart their course, and they are advised to follow the academic policies and operating procedures of the college or university. These include checking their college email messages daily, following the code of conduct of the college, learning their degree requirements, and not disappearing but instead officially withdrawing from a class they decide to drop. Minority and non-traditional students are advised to seek the resources available to them. Non-traditional students are encouraged to explore the option of getting course credits for prior life experiences.

Chapter Three focuses on active learning. Students are warned not to be passive vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge, but to play an active role in their own learning. They are instructed to carefully read their syllabus and follow it. They are provided effective note-taking and test-taking techniques as well as strategies for overcoming test anxiety. Students are taught how to write with the Hamburger method of essay construction, how to revise their writing, how to plan their search for information for a term paper, and how to avoid plagiarism.

Chapter Four reveals to students that research has shown that time management may be a better predictor of their grade point average than their SAT scores. It provides students with step-by-step instructions in how to structure their time by prioritizing according to their values, and breaking down their goals into specific sub-goals. Students are instructed to have a flexible plan, avoid procrastination by rewarding themselves after a study session, avoid wasting too much time on the Internet, exercise daily, enjoy the arts to help them relax and deal with stress, get adequate sleep to enhance learning and remembering new information, and take advantage of their most productive times by tapping into their circadian rhythm. They are also warned to avoid credit card debt and manage money wisely to achieve their goals.

Chapter Five cuts through the confusion in the literature on learning styles. Although many teachers and students believe that individual students learn better if they are taught using their preferred learning style, there is no scientific evidence that a student will learn more efficiently or effectively using their preferred learning style. Students are instructed to learn to use less preferred styles, as appropriate, to optimize their opportunities for success with different types of course content. Students are encouraged to seek opportunities for experiential learning, to avoid self-handicapping, and to realize that learning complex material requires mastery goals, deep processing, and performance approach goals. They are also encouraged to seek the assistance they need to cope with any physical disability, to get the free tutoring help needed to ensure their success in college, and to develop the requisite skills before enrolling in an online course

Chapter Six is probably the key chapter in the book because it provides students with the experimental research findings on learning and memory and shows them how to apply this research by integrating it into their own study habits. It describes the importance of using meta-cognitive strategies and self-regulation for achieving exam success. Students are instructed how to use techniques such as distributed study time, self-quizzing, and saving important research information on their computer to improve memory of course material. They are taught how to optimize their chances of success in immersion courses and warned about the need to be in the same state when studying as they will be in the testing situation.

Chapter Seven focuses on the benefits of students learning about themselves and developing positive self-esteem, self-efficacy, and a complex self-concept. It explains the latest research on personality theory and includes information about resources to help students gain self-insight about their talents and interests and select a college major. Students are encouraged to choose life roles that enable them to express their authentic personality and suit their desired lifestyle, to develop an assertive communication style, and to develop their emotional intelligence.

Chapter Eight focuses on strategies to help students learn to be creative and critical thinkers as well as effective decision-makers and problem solvers. They are warned about the pitfalls of common systematic mental biases or distortions in thinking that researchers have identified such as anchoring, sunk costs, and negative stereotypes. Students are encouraged to learn to brainstorm, gather and evaluate evidence, and to rely on logical reasoning processes when making judgments in order to make effective decisions that better facilitate goal achievement. This chapter also teaches students how to develop proactive coping strategies for dealing with anticipated life challenges and stress.

Chapter Nine focuses on strategies for exploring, setting, and achieving personally meaningful life goals. It informs students about research demonstrating the need for setting goals based on their highest life priorities and directing their time, energy, and money toward achieving them. It provides self-assessment tools for identifying their highest priority educational, career, and personal life goals and outlines strategies for making these goals manageable, believable, and achievable. This chapter advises students to form mutually satisfying relationships in which each partner is able to help the other achieve important goals. It also teaches strategies for becoming a happier person.

Chapter Ten provides assessment tools that students can use to identify their personality strengths and types as well as careers that might be of interest to them. It warns students that a college diploma is not enough to guarantee that they will get a high paying professional job after graduation and informs them of skills and experiences researchers have identified that are valued by employers such as computer literacy, information management skills, leadership skills, and job related work experience. It explains how students can develop these skills and gain these experiences through taking selected courses, participating in internships, and holding college leadership positions in order to become more marketable to employers. It discusses the value of building a mentoring network and outlines practical strategies for demonstrating proof of these skills and experiences to potential employers by constructing a résumé.

Chapter One

Develop Your Identity: Who You Are and

Who You Want to Be.

Success in college will not happen by luck or by accident. You need to have educational goals and a detailed game plan to be able to sustain the high level of motivation required to achieve them. So, the first step is to identify the lifestyle you want and the type of career you would like to pursue. Identify tentative goals and a game plan to get you started if you are not sure of your desired career. You will be able to clarify your educational and career goals as you complete exercises in this book and your college courses.

You also need to be an active learner who believes you can succeed through hard work and persistent effort and ignores any messages from others or yourself to the contrary. Increase your chances of success and enjoyment of college by getting involved in a college club or student government. You will make friends with peers who share your interests and feel connected to the college.

Set Personally Meaningful Goals then Have

Self-Control and Grit in Order to Achieve Them

As the old saying goes, Be careful what you wish for because you might get it. Goal setting is a very powerful motivating force, which acts as a servomechanism keeping an individual moving in the direction of the goal. It is important to select goals that are in harmony with one’s moral values, conscience, and priorities as to what is really important in one’s life. Goals are in themselves neither good nor bad; it depends on what the goals are and how much you must sacrifice to achieve them. You might have a goal of earning $500,000 per year. But if you lie, cheat, and steal to achieve the goal, or have to travel extensively and are not able to spend time with your children and spouse, achieving the goal will be detrimental to you and your family (and you may well spend time in prison). Thus, you must carefully select your goals to be in accordance with your moral values and not in conflict with other priorities in your life. The power of the goal for transforming your life increases when you write down the goal, in explicit detail, and read the goal on a daily or weekly basis.

An important reason why some people are more successful than others in achieving their goals is self-control, which enables them to regulate attention, emotion, and behavior. We will discuss the concept self-regulation and the Academic Self-Regulation Scale (ASRS), which is a measure of how well a college student is able to regulate or control his or her behavior relative to their lives in college. Another important cause of success is grit, which refers to the determined and consistent pursuit of a major goal despite setbacks. Grit may require the persistent pursuit of the goal over years and even decades such as when a student has the goal of becoming a professional such as a surgeon, or a clinical psychologist (Duckworth & Gross, 2014)

The initial reason for selecting a goal can influence the likelihood of achieving it (Sheldon & Elliot 1998). In a study designed to test the hypothesis that goals caused by external incentives will lose appeal with time, Sheldon and Elliot (1998) asked 128 undergraduate students enrolled in psychology classes to generate a list of 10 personal strivings (such as trying to be physically attractive and trying to seek new and exciting experiences) and to rate how much they pursue each striving on a scale from 1 not at all because of this reason to 9 completely because of this reason for each of four reasons:

• Extrinsic/Controlled—Striving because somebody else wants you to do so or thinks you should.

• Introjected/Controlled—Striving because you would feel ashamed, guilty, or anxious if you didn’t.

• Identified/Autonomous—Striving because you really believe that it’s an important goal to have.

• Intrinsic/Autonomous—Striving because of the fun and enjoyment that the goal provides you.

The students were asked to indicate how successful they had been in attaining their goals within the past month or so using a scale ranging from 0 (0–9% successful) to 10 (90–100% successful). The results of this study indicated that students who had Autonomous goals were more likely to attain them than students who had Controlled goals. Goals that we ourselves choose and are self integrated will be the ones on which we continue to work hard over time and that we are more likely to achieve.

In a follow-up study of goal attainment, 141 undergraduate students enrolled in psychology classes were asked at the beginning of the semester to first select a set of eight achievement goals from either the 51 items listed on the Achievement Goals Questionnaire (which included strivings commonly reported by college students in previous studies such as Try new and challenging activities, Avoid procrastination, and Fulfill my potential) or to fill in their own goals. They were then asked to rate both the reasons they would pursue their goals and the amount of effort they intended to invest in the goals. The same four reasons listed above were used in this study. The students rated their intended effort on a scale ranging from 1 (not at all hard) to 9 (very hard). Eight weeks later, the students rated the amount of effort they were actually investing in each goal. At the end of the 15-week semester, the students rated how well they had attained each goal. "The researchers concluded that achievement goals pursued for more autonomous (i.e., identified and/or intrinsic) reasons were better attained over a 15-week period (Sheldon & Elliot, 1998, p. 550). They attribute this goal achievement, in part, to the students working harder on their autonomous goals eight weeks into the study. In contrast, although participants intended to work hard in their highly controlled goals, their efforts declined during the first eight weeks of the semester.

A second study tested alternative explanations, such as perceived self-efficacy, for the autonomy effect observed in the studies summarized above. The results of this second study also found that autonomous motivation for personal goals was positively related to attaining those goals, whereas controlled motivation was not related to achieving them. Autonomous goals were apparently attained by engendering sustained effort. Notably, both the intrinsic interest in the goal and a goal consistent with one’s enduring values and beliefs independently predicted effort and attainment, indicating that both provide motivation to continue toward the goal. Controlledness was found to be associated with intended effort but not actual hard work (Sheldon & Elliot, 1998).

What are the implications of Sheldon’s and Elliot’s research for you? This research clearly demonstrates that in order to optimize your successful goal attainment, you should only pursue goals that are personally meaningful and truly important to you as well as harmonious with your core values and essential beliefs. When you pursue goals that either engage your natural interests or express your authentic personal values, you are most likely to be effective because you will have the stamina to continue to expend the effort required to achieve your goals in the long run. This stamina will help sustain your efforts even in the face of inevitable obstacles or hardships that everyone experiences in their lives.

What are you passionate about? What work would you love to do? Begin your college career by exploring a variety of academic subjects and working in community organizations. These experiences will help you to find out your special talents and academic interests (such as computer science, history, mathematics, medicine, law, psychology, political science, science, sociology), the type of cultural activities that excite you (such as art, music, or theater), and the type of life work that interests you. Then you will be able to identify personally meaningful long- and short-term goals for yourself and you will be motivated to achieve them and work hard to do so.

Focus on Your Vision for Your Success and Have a Step-by-Step Plan to Stay on Course

It facilitates your academic achievement to have life goals, which are the purposes toward which your efforts are directed or the objectives you intend to accomplish. You also need a life plan, a detailed outline of the steps that you must complete to achieve your goals. Your plan not only helps you remain mentally focused on the steps you need to complete, but also is a visual tool that enables you to chart your progress toward achieving your goals. However, many entering freshmen are explorers who do not know what they hope to accomplish in college. Rather, they hope to discover areas of knowledge that they love to study and find meaningful work in a related field. If you are an explorer, the best way to start defining your life goals is to focus your attention on creating your future life vision depicting what you and your life will be like when you graduate from college.

Start to define your vision for your success by reflecting about how you and your life will be different when you graduate from college and record your answers in a success journal or notebook for future reference. Develop the habit of updating or refining your future life vision any time during your college career and your life. Understanding and visualizing the key components of your future life will provide an incentive that motivates or impels you to take action and work to turn your vision into your reality.

In a diary study investigating the uses of visualization as a cognitive tool for effective living (Kosslyn, Seger, Pani, & Hillger, 1990), people reported using visualization techniques for such diverse activities as problem solving (e.g., forming cognitive maps for navigation purposes), mental practice (e.g., forming an image of a swimming stroke), memory improvement (e.g., trying to remember a name by forming an image of someone’s face), and emotional or motivational inducement (e.g., using imagery to induce a relaxed state under stress).

Research has shown that combining mental imagery with setting of a goal and creation of a goal implementation intention plan is an effective strategy for enhancing goal achievement. Implementation intentions are concrete action plans that specify in an if-then format when, where and how one will act in order to achieve a specific goal ..., (Gollwitzer 1993, 1999; Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006, as cited in Knäuper, Roseman, Johnson, & Krantz, 2009, p. 181). Research that combined training of a group of college students in vivid mental imagery with goal setting (I want to achieve goal X!) and creation of a goal implementation intention plan (If I encounter situation X, then I will perform behaviour Y!) found that this combination resulted in increased goal attainment (completion of a menial task) compared with performance of students in a group that were trained in creation of a goal implementation intention plan without using mental imagery. (Knäuper et al., 2009, p.181). Research in which low fruit consuming adults were trained to use mental imagery targeting key elements of implementation intentions (the critical cues and intended action), resulted in increased fruit consumption for that group of participants but not for high fruit consuming individuals (Knäuper et al., 2011, p. 603). In another study, inactive adult women mentally simulating an approach goal (linking the goal of engaging in the behavior to a desirable end-state)" increased their physical activity (Chan & Cameron, 2012, p. 349). This research suggests that setting goals, creating an implementation intention plan, and using vivid mental imagery targeting key elements of your implementation intentions or mentally simulating a desired goal will help motivate you to achieve your goals.

Combining mental contrasting with implementation intention planning has been shown to be an effective metacognitive strategy to improve self-regulation of a variety of goals such as improving mobility in patients with chronic back pain (Christiansen, Oettingen, Dahme, & Kilnger, as cited in Oettingen & Gollwitzer, 2010). It has also been shown to be an effective intervention for personality development.

Mental contrasting (imagining a desired future and then reflecting on the present reality that stands in the way of attaining the desired future) ... helps people to make up their minds about whether to commit to the goal of realizing the future by scrutinizing the feasibility of reaching the goal. When feasibility (expectation of success is high, people commit strongly to attaining the goal; when feasibility is low, they form a weak goal commitment or none at all. (Oettingen & Gollwitzer 2010, pp. 115–116)

In a study in which college students were first trained to use the mental contrasting strategy to identify an obstacle, then to identify behavior needed to overcome or circumvent the obstacle, and finally to form if ... then… statements focusing on overcoming the obstacle (e.g., a noisy roommate or ... studying effectively for an upcoming test, the participants using these techniques reported an increase in self-discipline and self-esteem after a 1-week intervention compared to students in a control group (Oettingen, & Gollwitzer, 2010, p. 130). This research suggests that using mental imagery will help you to select realizable goals and create plans to implement them including coping with challenges faced along the way.

Likewise, you can use meditation mental imagery or creative visualization and reflection techniques to plan your future life vision, frame goals, create goal implementation intention plans, privately rehearse and refine new behaviors associated with achieving all of your desired goals before performing them in public, and generate creative solutions for the roadblocks you encounter in your life.

When you use meditation, creative visualization, and reflection together regularly, you will be better able to create a clear, integrated, and self-affirming life vision and identify the college, relationship, career, and personal goals that will lead you to living it. It is important that you achieve a clear, integrated, and self-affirming future life vision before attempting to implement any of your future life plans. Doing so will help you avoid the problems that people typically experience when they impulsively make a desired life change, such as taking a job they don’t like because it has a high salary or making a geographic move for a new job, without first assessing how it will impact other aspects of their personal and professional lives. Using meditation, creative visualization, and reflection regularly to reevaluate your future life vision will also help you to anticipate, identify, proactively prepare for, and be in a position to meet life challenges and to capitalize upon new opportunities in our fast-paced and changing world. Once you can picture your future life vision and goals clearly in your mind, you will be able to start turning the future life of your dreams into your reality. Creating your future life vision, however, does not guarantee change. It must be followed by choice and decision making about your goals, making implementation intention plans for achieving your goals, and execution of your plans.

Do not be concerned if you think that you do not know how to meditate or use creative visualization techniques. There is really no right or wrong way to meditate. It is more important for you to develop a reflective style that feels natural to you and to make sure you meditate on a daily basis than it is to follow a particular ritual. Most of us practice some form of meditation and creative visualization when we daydream. You probably already do know how to use these techniques, but are not consciously aware of the exact steps you use in the process. Use meditation and visualization techniques to begin to create a vision of your future by following the steps outlined below. Then you can modify them to suit yourself. You will learn to become proficient in using these techniques as you practice them.

• To begin creating a vision of your future life, get into a relaxed, meditative state. You can either lie down or sit in a comfortable position with your back straight and your feet touching the floor.

• Starting with your feet and moving upward, tense and relax every part of your body, in turn, while breathing deeply. Quiet your mind to achieve a mental state in which you can think clearly about your future life vision. Many people find that the easiest way to quiet their mind is to focus on their breathing. As stray thoughts enter your mind during meditation sessions, gently release them (by mentally putting them in an imaginary bubble and letting them float away with your breath as you exhale, for example) and return your attention to your breathing. If you recall hurtful things that happened in your past, say a short prayer or affirmation (positive self-talk) indicating that you now release the person who has hurt you from punishment by you without condoning their behavior. Refocus your attention on your future life.

• Next, imagine yourself living the part of your future life upon which you are currently focusing your attention. You may find it helpful to pretend that you are watching a movie of yourself, the star of your life, enacting your future life movie script when using creative visualization (Zahm, 2010). You can visualize yourself achieving one of your important life goals or enacting a particular role in your future life script and reflect on the result of achieving it. Doing so will help you verify that achieving your goal will really enable you to live the future life you desire.

• As you identify areas in the imaginary preview footage that do not seem to suit you, mentally stop the movie and edit the film until the scene truly captures the essence of your future life dreams. Continue to preview and edit the important scenes in your future life movie again and again until they seem perfectly comfortable and very real to you.

• During subsequent meditation and creative visualization sessions, mentally picture and evaluate each essential area of your future life movie, in turn, in order to create a clear, coherent, and self-affirming future life vision. Try to make the vision as vivid as possible by using as many senses as you can. If you are imagining that you are walking at the beach, for example, hear the ocean waves and the seagulls, feel the damp sand under your feet, and smell the salt air.

• You can also use visualization and reflection to privately rehearse and fine tune new behaviors mentally—including interactions with members of your family, a professor, or a boss—before performing them in real life situations.