I was recently listening to an Achieve Your Goals podcast with writer Lucia Giovannini titled, “How to Make Meaningful Changes in Your Life” and had one of those lightbulb moments well before the end of the conversation. Host Hal Elrod starts off his 255^th episode saying, “affirmations, when done effectively are indeed one of the most effective practices to reprogram our mind, optimize our mindset, and create lasting change in our life.” Beginning the conversation with the benefits and downfalls of affirmations, I was immediately interested since I’ve been reciting affirmations from some personal development training I did last year, periodically feeling a dissonance when I would say certain phrases. This conversation would reveal ways to help to improve my consistency reciting them as part of my morning routine and bring an idea that will impact the rest of my year.

Lucia goes to say, “we use affirmations to see things in a new way, to live a new direction in our mind. It’s like planting seeds.” She also mentioned that “sometimes if we use affirmations that are too far from our truth, then there’s part of our unconscious mind that goes ‘I don’t believe that.’” My first realization to where the dissonant feeling was coming from. I felt like I was saying something that I knew is not entirely accurate, and by doing that, I’d feel a nervous tension in my chest. I began to ask myself how I could move toward consistently reciting my affirmations and believe what I’m saying? I want to act on all of the statements designed to help me, even if its subconsciously. While I was starting to think of what I could do, Lucia said something that got my wheels in motion.

“What I normally suggest is for people to start [their far reaching] affirmations with ‘I am willing to’ or ‘I now give myself permission to’’ she started. Continuing, “or ‘I deserve to,’ or ‘I choose to deserve to.’” As she listed multiple phrases to begin the affirmations with, I started to see that my problem was that some I was saying were results of actions I hadn’t taken, acting as if I was already there, and they were too far from my truth.

Hal was right on cue stating, “I think that one of the biggest problems with affirmations is that the way they’ve been taught by self-help pioneers is to lie to yourself. To say I am ___, and it’s not a reality yet, but is your desired reality. Then affirmations don’t work for [some people] because they’re fighting the truth. If you lie to yourself and say I am wealthy when you’re broke, then you’re piling liar on top of your financial challenges and struggles.” When I heard that, my lightbulb lit up and I came up with a challenge for myself to carry me through 2019.

I began wondering if I re-write the affirmations I struggle with to be more in line with my truths and start saying my sales professional ideals and absolute core truths and values as affirmations, what impact would that have on my actions this year? By reciting them enough times, I’d undoubtedly commit them to memory I thought and would remember without the shadow of a doubt what the principles were to live by and what I aspire to achieve. As I continued to ponder what that result would be like, curiosity lead me to the Production Effect. This study showed that there was a “difference in memory favoring words read aloud relative to words read silently during study.” My morning routine was finding a deeper purpose. My challenge became to continue tracking progress by working on my mindset, financial blueprint, ideal standards for my job, and overall values system, adding my affirmations as part of my No Extra Time (N.E.T.) Productivity Action Plan I started doing two years ago. This will be an exciting experiment to do in 2019, and I’m excited to see what the results of my actions are in December. Combining ideas and expanding on podcasts I’m listening to is becoming more exciting and resulting in activities to help me be the change I want to see in the world.

Are there any affirmations that you have and would like to do more frequently? Are there any phrases, ideas, or beliefs that you want to imprint deeper into your subconscious or conscious mind for that matter that represents where you want to stand? You can create an affirmation that will lead you toward the change you would like to see in your life, and this podcast is a great place to start that process. Hal and Lucia also cover the importance of asking how questions and give tips on handling unwanted change in our lives that I believe can also help with those 1% improvements we all strive to see. If you have spare time, this is worth listening to. Change awaits once you press play.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this blog post or find a useful idea, please share it with your friends and family. Your referral is greatly appreciated. I look forward to discovering where the change happens with you.