Do you do affirmations? If so, when’s the last time you sat down and asked yourself if they’re actually working for you?
What I’ve seen over the years looks something like this….
There you are, reciting your affirmations with as much enthusiasm as possible. Only 3 more to go before you can check this off your daily success habits list and move onto the next peak performance strategy you’ve got.
You’ve done these affirmations for what seems to be an eternity and keep doing them because you’re “supposed to” yet they don’t seem to be working and every time you recite them in the back of your mind you’re reminding yourself what a “liar” you are.
Sound familiar?
Trust me, you’re not alone. This is a common problem. And clearly, you’re doing these affirmations because you want to get ahead in life.
So just why aren’t these affirmations working and what can you do about it so you stop wasting your precious time?
Let’s start here.
What’s an affirmation?
An affirmation is the action or process of stating something as a fact. They’re words or phrases that evoke a positive state of mind or something one desires, like “I am powerful”, “I am beautiful”, “I am healthy and strong”, “Money flows to me easily and effortlessly”.
They are closely related to mantras which are rooted in Buddhism and Sanskrit. Affirmations have been a fundamental component of many personal growth and development programs since the explosion of personal growth and development. In Napoleon Hill’s Think and Frow Rich, he devotes an entire chapter to autosuggestion, implying that if you repeat something often enough, eventually you’ll believe it. As scientific research evolved and developed, the impact of positive affirmations has been proven to help people achieve success, reduce negative behaviors and increase positive ones.
These days, many successful entrepreneurs, leaders in business, writers and celebrities like Anthony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, Arnold Schwartzenegger, Jim Carey, Denzel Washington, Lady Gaga, and Selena Gomez use affirmations as part of their mindset and success formula.
If your affirmations are working for you, amazing. Keep doing what you’re doing. There’s no need to read the rest of this article. However, if they’re not, you may be wondering….
If science proves that affirmations work, why aren’t they working for ME?
Let’s address the elephant in the room. You’ve been following all the rules. You’ve carefully selected your affirmations, you repeat them daily, perhaps even several times a day and you aren’t seeing improvement. Why is that?
Here are a few typical reasons your affirmations won’t work for you. You may be encountering one or many of them.
1.Your affirmations don’t align with you, your truth or desires.
Affirmations must be personalized for you. If you think you can Google the top 50 affirmations and pick them off a random list, good luck!
Affirmations are repeated over and over again, so if you don’t choose the right affirmations, you’ll be reinforcing something misaligned, wasting your precious time on something unnecessary or feeling like a liar as you say them.
There are many ways to create powerful affirmations that work. My favourite are through Time Line Therapy (we do this process in the Ultimate Breakthrough), Praxis Statements and Decision
2.Your affirmations are too big of a jump.
If you’re just getting started in business, haven’t earned a single dollar yet and are saying “I’m a billionaire business boss” when you have no context or neurology for what that even is, you’ll get backlash because your unconscious mind is doing its best to protect you from a perceived danger and in this case, failure.
I help clients create Progressive Affirmations in our Abundance Accelerator Program to ensure they’re truthful and headed in the right direction.
3.You’re on autopilot and simply going through the motions.
It’s easy to rush through them to check them off your list in attempt to get that dopamine hit and say you’ve completed your mindset routine. If you don’t actually have any positive feelings or connections to them. There’s no meaning or depth as you do it.
Set yourself up for success and make sure you do them at a time and in a place where you can get emotionally involved so you can actually feel it.
4.You say them once and expect them to manifest.
Tony Robbins say that “repetition is the mother of skill” and he’s right. There are two way to change a belief: massive emotional impact and constant paced repetition. It’s just like a baby learning to walk. They don’t just get up and get going the first time around. They keep practicing even when they fall and get back up with enthusiasm over and over again. This I not one-and-done, you must keep coming back to the affirmation until it becomes a part of you.
Be patient with yourself
Affirmations are a wonderful tool that can fuel you forward or pull you back. When you take the time to create and repeat the right affirmations for you with enthusiasm and do it consistently, you’ll need a telescope to see how far you’ll go in a short period of time.
Realize this is a work in progress. Sometimes you can get it on your own and sometimes you need help.
If you’d like to learn how you can develop the skill to master your affirmations and get them working for you, book a complimentary Strategy Session.
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