Both intention and visualization are key words in the accomplishment of any goal. When I attend seminars or read books on goal setting and success principles, I always receive the information in a number of ways.
First of all I receive the information and decide if and how I can incorporate it into my life to help myself reach the goals that I am currently working on. Then I look at my profession and try to apply what I am reading or hearing into the creation of the curriculum and atmosphere that will have an effect on the children in my care.
So, as both teachers and parents, we have the same goals. We are trying to create young people who have a good sense of self, the ability to make positive choices and the confidence to face new activities and challenges.
Given the equation of E + R = O . . . Events + Response = Outcome, let’s try to apply it to our parenting or teaching. The event would be the behavior of the child. Your response to this behavior will create the outcome. It will not only create the outcome for this individual event, but quite possibly it will affect future behavior as well. As we take a look at responses, we have to realize how many different elements exist in every response. Some include the quickness of the response, the intensity, the tone, and the volume. Does it include any physical action, (i.e. hugs, smiles, frowns)? Is it the same response as the child experienced the last time? So back to the equation, given a certain event or action, will it result in a consistent response to give us the positive outcome we are trying to create?
Your reaction might be, “Of course not, there are too many variables!” And I would have to agree. But if I add in the words intention and visualization I might get a different set of results. If we are clear as to our initial goals of what type of person we are trying to help our children become, and we are always visualizing the most positive actions, our responses will be much more consistent, much more likely to create that outcome we are striving for.
So through setting an intention that is very specific to the outcome we are striving toward, we can set our responses to achieve that visualized outcome.
To create a change in behavior we need about 30 days. So choose the behavior that seems the most important to your child’s growth at this time and then set your intention about the change you really want to see, visualize the final outcome and keep those responses as consistent as possible.
