Summary

The article emphasizes the transformative power of positive self-talk through affirmations to overcome personal challenges and improve one's mental state.

Abstract

The article "It’s Not Too Late, Readjust Your Course With Affirmations" discusses the impact of self-talk on personal success and well-being. It highlights how using positive affirmations can counteract negative thoughts and situations, such as a poorly executed presentation. The author provides personal anecdotes to illustrate the effectiveness of affirmations in regaining confidence and achieving goals. The article also explains the science behind affirmations, citing studies that show their ability to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as improve self-esteem and problem-solving skills. The author encourages readers to incorporate affirmations into their daily routine and offers guidance on creating personalized affirmations that resonate with individual experiences and challenges.

Opinions

The author believes in the transformational power of words and suggests that positive self-talk can shape one's belief system and outcomes.
Affirmations are presented as a practical and accessible tool for anyone to use, akin to a ladder for climbing out of negative emotional states.
Personalized affirmations are deemed more effective than generic ones, as they directly address an individual's specific situations and challenges.
The article conveys that repetition and sincerity are key to the success of affirmations, suggesting that engaging multiple senses enhances their impact.
The author is confident in the scientific backing of affirmations, referencing research that supports their benefits for mental health and performance.
The article encourages a proactive approach to personal development by integrating affirmations into daily life for continuous growth and self-improvement.

It’s Not Too Late, Readjust Your Course With Affirmations

The power of self-talk

My day sucked. The trains were late, and the 45 minutes I had planned to go over my presentation to the sales team had vanished into thin air. Poof! Needless to say, the pitch for a new service offering did not go as smoothly as planned. I felt like I was in a tailspin and needed someone or something to pull me out of it. Then I reached in my bag of tricks and pulled out a tool that saved the presentation. That tool was positive self-talk.

Magic Words

Your words have transformational powers. If you say, “I am a failure.” you will lay the groundwork for a belief that you can not succeed. So why not create some positive internal dialogue instead? That is what affirmations are all about.

Using affirmations, short positive messages, will help you pull out of that tailspin. They are the ladder that allows you to climb out of the bottom of your emotional barrel, and make your way to the top. Not only that, but they are also easy to do.

Merriam-Webster defines affirmation as an act of saying or showing that something is true. Why the positive statements you use as affirmations may not be true yet, planting the seed in your mind is moving your thoughts closer to a visible reality. The key is to make a habit of using these proclamations. Just like exercise or learning something new, the best way to succeed with affirmations is repetition.

Once the presentation was finished and before taking questions, I took a deep breath, and said to myself, “You got this.” Knowing the amount of time I had put into developing a mock up of the course, the proposal and preparation for this presentation, those words centered me. Though my presentation was forgettable, the informative and impassioned Q&A session allowed me to convince the sales team that my program was worth pitching to our customers. Indeed, I did “have this.”

Create Personalized Affirmations

You can use quotes, sacred texts, or make up your own positive statements to use as positive self-talk. The key is that the statement needs to fit your specific situations. As a result, you may have different declarations for common areas of your day-to-day life. When I have 10 more seconds to hold a plank I often say, “John, you’ve got this.”

As I am preparing for a sales call I’ll use, “I have the best solution for my prospect’s problem.”

And on the occasion that my mind wanders while writing, I say aloud and with confidence, “This story is going to make a difference to someone, stay focused.”

These customized affirmations remind me that I am more than capable and help to push me towards effective outcomes. While making up affirmations is helpful for specific situations, there are some well-known sayings that I love to use for keeping on track, too:

I am exactly where I need to be at this moment.
I was not put in this situation to fail.
Be a champion!

Practice With Sincerity

You can recite your affirmations in your mind. That’s a start. You will have more success in building a positive mental picture if you say your affirmation aloud. In this way, you can hear the pronouncement as well. This two sense (kinetic and auditory) interaction will help the positive thought to penetrate your being.

Want the thought to resonate deeper? Touch your heart and look in the mirror as you repeat the statement. I have found that the more senses you engage, the deeper the connection. As you repeat your affirmation, you should notice a sense of confidence swell within you. That positive energy is your thoughts moving you to action, the affirmation realized.

Really!?

This may sound too easy to be true, it’s not. There is hard science behind the value of affirmations. In their article about the use of intrinsic affirmations Jeff Schimel, Jamie Arndt, Katherine M. Banko and Alison Cook looked at three studies that demonstrated affirmations help to reduce feelings of self sabotage and reduce anxiety in uncomfortable situations. While another study by A R Peden, M K Rayens, L A Hall, L H Beebe showed that women university students between the ages of 18 and 24 were less vulnerable to bouts of depression, and had higher self-esteem when regularly using positive affirmations. Finally, J. David Creswell, Janine M. Dutcher, William M. P. Klein, Peter R. Harris, John M. Levine’s 2013 study showed that using positive affirmations reduced stress and increased problem-solving ability.

What’s Next?

Now that you know the effectiveness of positive affirmations, how to create and practice them, you need to make them part of your regular routine. Using this power of suggestion two to three times a day will make a big difference.

Start out with a general affirmation, like “I will make a contribution to the world around me today.” Use a more specific proclamation during the day when you face a challenging task such as making a presentation, “I am going to give an excellent presentation that has value to the audience.” And end the day with some positive self-talk that has you feeling confident as you prepare for bed, “I am a better person for the experiences of today than I was yesterday.” Practicing affirmations will make your self-respect muscles bulge and your self-love flow like a fountain.

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