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Using The Power of Visualisation To Motivate: Earlier in This Series

1) The document discusses using visualization as a powerful motivational tool for studying and achieving goals like passing exams. 2) It recommends visualizing the benefits of success, such as imagining owning a desired car after qualifying, and putting reminders of the visualization somewhere visible. 3) The document also provides tips for effective time management while studying such as creating a study schedule, breaking tasks into smaller chunks, and rewarding accomplishments.

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14 views

Using The Power of Visualisation To Motivate: Earlier in This Series

1) The document discusses using visualization as a powerful motivational tool for studying and achieving goals like passing exams. 2) It recommends visualizing the benefits of success, such as imagining owning a desired car after qualifying, and putting reminders of the visualization somewhere visible. 3) The document also provides tips for effective time management while studying such as creating a study schedule, breaking tasks into smaller chunks, and rewarding accomplishments.

Uploaded by

sabrina006
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Using the power of

visualisation to
motivate
Sean Purcell

I wrote an article ​earlier in this series​ and if you have not read
it and are planning to take your exam in September, I would
advise reading it before continuing.

I’m sure that you agreed with a lot of what I said and promised
yourself that you were going to do something about it and the
question which I would ask you now – three weeks later – is
have you actually done anything about it?

If not, please don’t beat yourself up, as even in normal times


relying on sheer willpower to get things done can be difficult. I
appreciate it can be challenging to stay motivated when you
are working from home but try and see this as a golden
opportunity to advance your exam progress.
Self-confidence is a key requisite for great undertakings. To
succeed in your exams you must be confident, and one thing
you can be absolutely confident about is that if you follow a
structured study approach, covering all areas of the syllabus
and supplement your learning by using ACCA online resources
such as the ​Practice Platform,​ the likelihood of you passing
increases significantly. On that there is no doubt!

Whatever you are aiming for, be it passing exams or


winning an Olympic gold medal, the power of
visualising your future success has shown to be a very
powerful motivating tool

Confidence and motivation are also interlinked. Whatever you


are aiming for, be it passing exams or winning an Olympic gold
medal, the power of visualising your future success has shown
to be a very powerful motivating tool. The Olympians we talked
about in the last article will have been visualising themselves
on the winning podium with a gold medal around their neck for
the past couple of years and they will have now refocused to
next year. If you have not already done so, I think it is really
important for you to visualise the benefits which you are to gain
by succeeding in your ACCA studies.
We are all likely motivated by different outcomes. It might be a
gold medal for athletes but, for you, it may be the satisfaction
of achieving the ACCA Qualification or it may be the ability to
support a different lifestyle for you and your family once you
qualify. Let’s just say you really want to buy a certain car and
you know that the salary you will earn on qualifying will help
you to do so. My advice would be go to the car showroom
where a similar car is for sale and go and sit in the car, smell it,
maybe even take it for a test drive. If you get a picture of that
car, you can put it on your wall and maybe look at it each time
you don’t fancy following your study timetable.

So, we have created our vision for the future and put it on the
wall – we now need to take action on how to get there. You
might want to reflect on what you have actually done since you
read the last article. If you feel that you could have utilised your
time more effectively in the past few weeks, think about what
you need to do to make sure you use your time better going
forward.

As mentioned in the previous article, one of the best ways to


make things happen is to create a structure of living.

Everyone is different but it might be a good idea to create a


wall chart from now until the exam date. Creating such a chart
will show that there is still a lot of time between now and your
exam. However, if this time is not appropriately allocated to
everything we need to do over the next few months, there is a
strong likelihood that the time will just fritter away in a similar
way to the time passed over the last few weeks. There is also
an ​ACCA study planning tool​ that you may find useful.

Another tip would be that, on the journey between now and


your exam, put some milestones along the way. For example,
at what point would you like to have completed all of your
learning? And how long are you going to allocate to the
revision period? Now that we have these dates in the diary, we
can go about breaking down our learning phase of study into
realistic manageable sections or ‘chunks’. This is an important
task.

Effective use of time

Some students will often spend hours studying a particular


topic, sometimes a whole day. The problem here is that this
approach is often ineffective, as it lacks clear direction. If you
break your tasks down into smaller chunks of time you will be
more effective. You need to create a purpose for each of these
chunks of time and have them planned throughout your week.
You also need to be realistic – we are all different and what
one person reads in 30 minutes might take you much longer.
The point is that it is all about managing your own sense of
time and space.

With regards to space, it’s good to have a dedicated place for


study, leaving everywhere else for relaxation. Constantly
reflecting on ​how​ you’re learning, ​what​ you’re learning and
why​ you are doing it (keep looking at your end-goal photo!)
can give you that purpose and motivation to keep on track.

Reward yourself

Remember also that it is not all about work, and allowing


yourself a treat once a certain topic or question is complete
can be a good motivator. It’s probably best to avoid too many
cream cakes though, as these are not the greatest brain foods!

Switch off the stream

To minimise distractions, maximise time focused on study and


prevent yourself being dragged down irrelevant rabbit holes.
It’s also a good idea to switch off all your social media streams
until after study.
I hope that is useful and I will be back in a couple of weeks to
check whether you are taking the advice.

Stay safe and good luck with the studies.

Sean Purcell BA ACMA CGMA is an ACCA expert tutor


who regularly contributes to ACCA programmes around
the world. He was recently voted 2020 lecturer of the year
by PQ magazine.

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