James Allen, Robert Collier, Wallace Wattles, Napoleon Hill, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Anthony Robbins and Brandon Clay (if you please!)– the greatest success philosophers of old and new all agree that affirmations are powerful ways to “program” the brain. 

Affirmations, in this context, are powerful words aligned in such a way that program the brain from the “inside out”. For a time, while you are speaking them (yes, out loud!) to yourself, the conscious mind says, 

“You fool, that is not true…that is not you.”

but over time your sub-conscious mind says, 

“This has to be true…let me tell you what to do” 

I do not want to play psychologist and try to describe the mental process that makes affirmation so powerful, but millions of people (myself included) will tell you that they work. Like electricity and photosynthesis, you don’t have to fully understand a process to get the benefit of it. Take my word about affirmations – they are effective. Here is the definition. 

Affirmation (noun) 

1. The act of affirming or the state of being affirmed, assertion. 
2. Something declared to be true, a positive statement or judgment.
3. A statement intended to provide encouragement, emotional support, or motivation, especially when used for the purpose of autosuggestion.
4. The assertion that the testimony one gives is true and equivalent to that which would be given while under oath. 

What we are about to construct is an affirmation all about you:

Step One: Take the five areas of your life and write five key words to describe the ideal person you want to be. These words should be powerfully descriptive, vivid and even an “over the top” caricature or departure, from words you might normally use. For example, for the “Physically” category, instead of using the word “beautiful” you could use “stunning”, or “breathtaking”.

Make sense? See examples for Physically (yes, these are my own!) 

At the end of this portion of the exercise, you should have 5 powerful imagery words for each category. 

Step Two: For each category, pick the one word that epitomizes the ideal version of you. For my list of “Physically” words, “stylish” does the trick. Now, repeat that for the other 4 categories until you have the one word that is the most all– encompassing and dominant word for each category. 

Step Three: Write out the simple version of your affirmation using the 5 descriptive words. Here is mine. 

“I Am stylish, brilliant, compassionate, joyful, and affluent.” 

Say yours once to yourself. Better yet, say it once out loud – don’t worry, no one is listening except you…. 

Feels good doesn’t it? 

A properly constructed affirmation brings hope and hope feels good. It is ok that you are not all that (and the proverbial bag of chips) yet.  

It is coming if you remain faithful to this exercise. How do I know? Because… 

I Am