In this activity, you will create a personal affirmation. If you repeat your affirmation often, it will help you make choices that will strengthen the personal qualities needed to achieve your goals and dreams.

1. Write a one-sentence statement of one of your most motivating goals or dreams in your role as a student.
2. Write a long list of personal qualities that would help you achieve this educational goal or dream. Use adjectives such as persistent, intelligent, hard-working, loving, articulate, organized, friendly, confident, relaxed, and so on. Write as many qualities as possible.

3.Circle the three qualities on your list that seem the most essential for you to achieve your goal or dream as a student (the one you identified in Step 1).

4. Write three versions of your personal affirmation. Do this by filling in the blanks in sentence formats A, B, and C below. Fill the blanks with the three personal qualities you circled in Step 3 above. NOTE: Use the same three personal qualities in each of the three formats.

Format A: I am a,,man/woman.

Example: I am a strong, intelligent, persistent woman.

Format B: I am a,,man/woman,ing.

Example: I am a strong, intelligent, persistent woman, creating my dreams.

Format C: I am a,,man/woman, and I.

Example: I am a strong, intelligent, persistent woman, and I love life.

Dont copy the examples; create your own unique affirmation.

5. Write three paragraphsone for each of the three qualities in your affirmation. In each of these paragraphs, write about a specific experience when you displayed your desired quality. For example, if one of your desired qualities is persistence, tell a story about a time in your life when you were persistent (even a little bit!). Write the story like a scene from a book, with enough specific details that readers will feel as though they are seeing what you experienced. Your paragraph might begin: The first quality from my affirmation is. A specific experience in my life when I demonstrated that quality was.

You can add creativity to your journal by adding pictures or key words that you found, your own original drawings, or quotations or song lyrics that appeal to you.

The practice of doing affirmations allows us to begin replacing some of our stale, worn out, or negative mind chatter with more positive ideas and concepts. It is a powerful technique, one which can in a short time completely transform our attitudes and expectations about life, and thereby totally change what we create for ourselves.