How to liberate yourself, step-by-step

A Portland State intern hopes to engage students in a new step-by-step goal-setting method that will help them achieve their goals with success.

A Portland State intern hopes to engage students in a new step-by-step goal-setting method that will help them achieve their goals with success.

Today in Smith Memorial Student Union room 338, from 5:30–7:30 p.m., Aziz Gazipura will host a free event called “Liberate Yourself!” with the aim of inspiring students and to help them uncover their true potential and achieve their goals.

“The goal of this presentation will be to show attendees that they can affect change in themselves and in the world where they live,” said J.R. Tarabocchia, coordinator of Commencement and Student Affairs Outreach. He also helped put Gazipura’s YouTube video together, in which Gazipura describes the event and explains the topic on which he plans to focus.

“I think the information Aziz will present is extremely useful for our student body,” Tarabocchia said. “He has studied with various psychologists and motivational speakers here and in California, and he has a lot of useful information to offer our students.”

Gazipura, who has been attending four- to six-day intensive seminars and training with motivational speaker Tony Robins, has developed a method which is merely a mindset that can aid in uncovering one’s passions and in locating the fears that delay and put constraints on everyday life.

He completed his undergraduate program at University of California Santa Barbara and is in the process of completing his doctorate program through the Stanford PGSP consortium. He is currently an intern in the PSU Student Health and Counseling Center. Gazipura is working towards fulfilling his goal of becoming a psychologist, with a long-term goal to work as a group psychologist.

“Fear is the only thing that really holds us back from our dreams, and once we realize we can move past those, we can begin to let go of those constraints and push further towards fulfillment,” Gazipura said.

One of the techniques he employs is active visualization, which is to have a vision and to know why you are striving for a particular goal.

“It is important to find the reasoning behind our dreams, and not just the fact we have them,” Gazipura said.

For each section of the event, there will be music played to help release certain feelings and unlock buried ideas. Psychologists believe music is helpful in creating feelings off of which people can base new ideas.

Although some may think it is important to constantly be pushing forward, there is a process of “actively waiting” that can allow solutions and reactions to arise. Gazipura describes how patience is not just waiting for the phone to ring with a job offer; it is more of a phenomenon in which action is put first, and then one waits for a response.

Gazipura has a five-step method in which he mentions how to help put dreams into reality. He also reveals seven secrets used by expert coaches and therapists to help people believe in themselves and to create the lives that they desire, without being constrained by the world around them.

“One of the other really important things is leadership; we want people to learn how they can be leaders of their own lives and in the lives of others,” Gazipura said.