Every Thought is an Affirmation

Many self-help authors recommend that we use daily affirmations to help keep ourselves on track to achieve goals. But, have you ever noticed that affirmations don’t really seem to work? You usually don’t get any closer to your goal with this approach, and it may even be a total waste of time.

Why is that? Here’s the secret: It does not work because literally every thought you have is actually an affirmation. You can spend three minutes telling yourself, “I am focused.” However, the problem is the rest of the time your powerful subconscious mind knows darn good and well you are not focused, and will revert to an unfocused mind the minute you end your affirmation.

The basic idea of conditioning yourself to think in new ways is excellent, but verbal affirmations alone do not work and neither does so-called positive thinking. Actually, positive thinking by itself is a bust. You cannot “think” yourself into anything. You must reinforce your thinking by attacking the automatic negative messages (ANTs) running around in the back of your mind, and then you need to take positive action.

If you really do want to make some changes in your life, you need to literally re-program your brain. One great way to get started is to make some changes in your environment that will support creating desired new habits. Yes, I did say habits. Everything we do is based on habits. In fact, our brain loves habits. How else could it do what it does to keep your miraculous body purring along and at the same time let you do things like imagine, plan, think, make love, etc.?

So, get started by removing links to any undesired aspects of your current identity—the triggers that cause you to think in your old ways. Start today with a small change, like cleaning up and rearranging your workspace. A few little changes won’t be enough to get you where you want to be. But, if you keep building these little changes, you will actually shift more and more of your environment to reflect your new role.

Look around your home and ask yourself objectively, “What kind of person lives here?” If I didn’t know who lived here, what would I conclude about the inhabitant? Then take a look at your office and do the same thing. Ask, “What kind of person would work here?” Make a list of the six people with whom you spend the most time, and ask, “What kind of person would associate with these people?”

Are your answers to these objective questions in keeping with the kind of person you want to be? If not, then what kind of environment would that person have, what kind of friends? And, how can you shift your environment to better match your ideal self? Maybe you can’t immediately get a whole new house or job, but you can make some small change right now—today—that will move you in the desired direction of becoming a better you. So, just do it!