Positive visualization is a technique where you use your imagination to create clear images, ideas, and feelings of something you want to occur in your life. You focus on these images, ideas, and feelings until they become reality and your goal has been met.
By visualizing both what we want to accomplish and how we expect to perform, we can influence the conditions under which we study for and take the bar examination.
For the bar exam, you should visualize the most important parts of the bar exam testing process. As these visualizations become more clear and certain, the likelihood of success increases as well.
You can choose what you think is most important, but I’ll suggest that two very important things to visualize are (1) walking into the bar exam testing room and remaining calm and (2) attending your swearing-in ceremony after having passed the bar.
The first is important because if you visualize yourself remaining calm when you enter the bar exam testing area, you are very likely to remain calm. You will have visualized the sensations and sights of entering the room filled with hundreds or even thousands of people so that it will not shock you when you do it for real. If possible, talk to people who have taken the bar exam in your state before and get their impressions of what the testing location was like. This will help make your visualization that much more realistic.
The second – visualizing being sworn in to the bar of your state – is important because if you visualize this as a fact that has already happened, the bar exam becomes just a step on the road to that foregone fact, rather than some diabolical test on your odyssey to becoming a lawyer.
How to visualize
I recommend you perform visualizations either first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening, and if you have time to visualize during the morning and the evening, even better! Morning and evening are best because it is during these times that the body and mind are most relaxed, which is important for visualization.
Step 1:
Find a quiet place where you can be alone for at least 15 minutes. You can sit in a chair or lie down in bed.
Step 2:
Once you have found the quiet place and time, close your eyes and relax. Do not forget to relax! The important first step for successful visualization is to enter a state of deep relaxation. If you already have a relaxation technique that works for you, please use it. If not, try deep, slow breathing for one minute while imagining yourself in your favorite place.
Step 3:
When you feel relaxed, you can recite a visualization from memory, create a visualization on the fly, or listen to a visualization script you have recorded into an iPod or other device. As you move through the script, try to hear, feel, and smell the reality that you are visualizing. The more real the visualization is, the more effective it is.
In case you are wondering what you might say to yourself while visualizing, I have written a visualization script for attending a swearing in ceremony. Note that it is written as if the event is actually happening and you are participating in it. Visualizations should be done in the present tense to heighten the sense that you are participating in something that is happening, not something that might happen.
Visualization Script: Attending the swearing-in ceremony.
Today is the culmination of everything that I have worked for and I become a lawyer. I am so happy and so proud. I knew I could do it. It took a lot of work and sacrifice, but it was worth it.
I arrive at the swearing in ceremony with my [husband/wife; boyfriend/girlfriend; parents; friends]. There are a lot of people here. I see some friends from law school. We congratulate each other.
I have to fill out some paperwork before the ceremony, so I wait in line to do so.
After I complete the paperwork, I find a place to sit in the auditorium. Several distinguished lawyers, judges, and justices are sitting at the podium table in front of the auditorium. Normally, I would dread sitting through their droning speeches, but today I look forward to what they will say to welcome me into the guild.
When the speeches are over, the judge leading the ceremonies asks everyone to stand and be sworn in. I raise my right hand and repeat the words of the oath.
I am now a lawyer.
Resources
For more about how to perform effective visualizations, I highly recommend reading Creative Visualization.
I also have an extensive discussion of positive visualization along with seven visualization scripts in my book Bar Exam Mind: A Strategy Guide for an Anxiety-Free Bar Exam.
You might also be interested in the Bar Exam Mind Visualization Audio program
P.S. -- Want a FREE copy of my Bar Exam Mind audiobook?
You can get a free copy of my audiobook when you sign up for a free trial at Audible. Get the details by clicking here.
