Successful people, from top salespeople and entrepreneurs to bestselling authors and Olympic athletes, have figured out that using willpower to power their success isn’t enough.
You need to let go of any and all negative thoughts and images and bombard your subconscious mind with new thoughts and images that are positive and stated in the present tense.
How do you do this?
The technique you use to do this is called daily affirmations, which is simply a statement that describes a goal in its already completed state.
Two examples of affirmations would be:
I am joyfully walking across the stage as I receive my MBA degree from Wharton.
I am so happy and grateful that I am now crossing the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
In addition to all of the feedback I have received from hundreds of thousands of students from around the world about the effectiveness of their using daily affirmations, there’s now new academic research that shows in high-stress level environments those who do daily affirmations have lower stress levels and more success than those who don’t.
What are Daily Affirmations?
Daily affirmations are to the mind what exercise is to the body. @JackCanfield (Click to Tweet!)
Repeating daily affirmations helps to reprogram the unconscious mind for success.
It helps eliminate negative and limiting beliefs and transforms your comfort zone from a limited one keeping you trapped in mediocrity to a more expanded one where anything is possible. It helps to replace your “I cant’s” with “I cans,” and your fears and doubts with confidence and certainty.
How Daily Affirmations Keep You Focused
Daily affirmations are reminders to your unconscious mind to stay focused on your goals and to come up with solutions to challenges and obstacles that might get in the way.
Daily affirmations also can create higher vibrations of happiness, joy, appreciation, and gratitude that then, through the law of attraction, magnetize people, resources, and opportunities to come to you to help you achieve your goals.
Whether you know it or not, you are always using affirmations… but usually not ones that will bring you what you want.
These are things like:
- “Everything I eat goes straight to my hips.”
- “I am never going to meet somebody I can love.”
- “I never catch a break.”
- “No matter what I do, I never seem to get ahead.”
How to Create Daily Affirmations
The use of daily positive affirmations interrupts and eventually totally replaces this barrage of negative thoughts and beliefs. To achieve this, you must continually flood your unconscious with thoughts and images of the new reality you wish to create.
I am going to share with you two sets of guidelines for creating powerful daily affirmations that work—the long form and the short form.
Here are the eight guidelines for creating effective daily affirmations. You may want to write these down. They are also in my book The Success Principles.
- Start with the words “I am.” These are the two most powerful words in the English language.
- Use the present tense.
- State it in the positive. Affirm what you want, not what you don’t want.
- Keep it brief.
- Make it specific.
- Include an action word ending with –ing.
- Include at least one dynamic emotion or feeling word.
- Make affirmations for yourself, not others.
Daily Affirmations Examples
Here’s an example of an affirmation following these guidelines:
I am joyfully driving my new red Porsche Carrera convertible down the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.
Or if you are more ecologically minded, you can make that a new Tesla.
You can use the following simple formula: I am so happy and grateful that I am now … and then fill in the blank.
Some examples would be:
I am so happy and grateful that I am now earning $150,000 a year.
I am so happy and grateful that I am now celebrating having achieved my ideal weight of 140 pounds.
One of my most famous affirmations is:
I am enjoying living in my beautiful beachfront villa on the Ka’anapali coast of Maui or somewhere better.
I started writing that affirmation in 1989 and in 2011 – that’s right, twenty-two years later, I had something better!
Make sure to take five to ten minutes every day to repeat your affirmations – preferably out loud with high energy and enthusiasm. The best times are early morning and right before you go to bed.
Create New Daily Positive Affirmations for Yourself
Write down three affirmations for yourself that affirm you having already achieved three of your goals and dreams. Then, write down the time of day that you will commit to practicing your affirmations. Is it when you wake up in the morning? Before you go to sleep? Or mid-day when you need a pick-me-up?
And to hold yourself accountable, go ahead and leave a comment below with your chosen time of day.
As the beloved originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, Jack Canfield fostered the emergence of inspirational anthologies as a genre—and watched it grow to a billion dollar market. As the driving force behind the development and delivery of over 100 million books sold through the Chicken Soup for the Soul® franchise, Jack Canfield is uniquely qualified to talk about success. Jack is America’s #1 Success Coach and wrote the life-changing book The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be and Jack speaks around the world on this subject. Check out his newest book The 30-Day Sobriety Solution: How to Cut Back or Quit Drinking in the Privacy of Your Own Home. Follow Jack at www.jackcanfield.com and sign up for his free resources today!
Image courtesy of JD Weiher.
