I‘m sure you have heard about positive affirmations, many of us have, but do affirmations work, and if so why or how do they work? What is the magic power behind them? What power do words really have, because aren‘t affirmation nothing more than words or positive phrases? If your interest is sparked, keep reading, because after you have read this short article you will have the answers to all of these questions and more. Not only will you understand why and how affirmations work, you will be figuring out a way to start using them right away in your life.

Affirmations are positive words or statements that are carefully constructed to state your deepest hopes, dreams and desires. These statements are then used to combat the constant negative beliefs and feelings, many of us harbor deep in our subconscious mind. When using positive affirmations, the common practice is to recite these positive statements a number of times throughout a set number of days. The reason for this is because it takes time to change a belief and or a habit. The experts say it takes 30 days to change a thought pattern or a habit. For this reason it is good practice to recite your affirmations for a minimum of 30 days.

So, now let’s answer the question, how are habits and beliefs formed? Simply put, habits and beliefs are formed through repetition. Let‘s do a little demonstration to see how this works, shall we. Let’s focus on our current belief system first. Let’s say we have seen study after study saying that eggs are bad for our health (which was once the case). So our belief is that eggs are bad for our health, but then there is a new study out that says eggs are good for our health. Our first reaction is to shrug off the results of this new study because there are so many other studies that say otherwise. Then something strange happens. You here a couple co-workers talking about the health benefits of eggs, then you read another study that says eggs are good for the heart. Now, your belief hasn’t changed, but you are teetering on which side to believe. The next day you over hear a doctor tell his patient that eggs are good. At this point you are convinced that eggs are good and you are spreading the word about the health benefits of eggs.

Habits work in much the same way. The first time someone takes a puff of a cigarette, they are not a smoker. As a matter of fact, most people cough and gag. What happens is, that they have a cigarette with their friends to look cool, they have a cigarette to calm the nerves, they have one to celebrate the new year with their friends, then they have one so they have a reason for a 5 minute break out of the office. Any one of these times is not significant, but the collective events is important. What happens is before they know it, they are lighting up without even thinking about it.

Why do affirmations work? They work because we are doing the same thing we did to create our current habit or belief. We are introducing the new thoughts and ideas into our brains and then we are repeating them until eventually we have a new belief or we have created a new habit. It’s not magic. It is just the way our minds work.

The question isn’t why do affirmations work. The real question is why aren’t we using affirmations in our everyday life? Logically, we know why affirmations work. If we think back to any belief we have or any habit, in many instances, we can pinpoint when that belief our habit was first introduced. We may not have been conscious of it at the time, but now we have the power to create new habits and beliefs with conscious creation. By simply introducing and repeating our deepest hopes, dreams and desires into our subconscious mind by reciting daily affirmations we are in fact creating new beli

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I’ve spent a fair bit of time speaking on the telephone with clients over the last few days and it’s got me to wondering why people are so uncertain, anxious, worried and even fearful at present. And why is money at the centre of so many people’s thoughts, why are so many people focused on money, making more of it, holding on to what they have or thought they had, fearful of not having enough? Indeed, I believe that I would be correct in saying that our present afflictions in the so-called “developed world” are the result of the ubiquitous obsession with money. And, sad to say, this is an obsession fuelled, in part, by people operating in the area in which I’ve been working since 1996 – the self-improvement or personal development “industry”.

Indeed, it is quite bizarre that many personal growth “gurus” or “better yourself experts” are often almost exclusively focused on money – and making more of it. By way of example, DVDs and books like “The Secret”, websites that shout “Treble Your Income” or sell false $1m bills pander to the over-riding obsession of the majority of people in this developed world of ours. People are obsessed with having “enough” money – whatever “enough” actually means! Does it, for example, mean something akin to Rockefeller’s concept that “enough” meant “just one more!” – or does it mean something completely different?

But back to what I really want to talk about. I’ve done a little digging and discovered that even “self-help classics” such as Florence Schovel-Shinn’s 1926 “The Game of Life and How to Play It” – which I recommend to all my clients – places a disproportionate emphasis on money. Money raises its ugly head all over the place in that and, sad to say, most “self-help” books. Even my own book “To Succeed…Just Let Go” wanders into the area of how to get more money. Or maybe I’m being a little too hard on myself because, more precisely, it explains how ample money flows if you flow first.

However, recently, after a heart-warming meal in the stunning surroundings of the French Alpine lakeside town of Annecy, as we meandered along the snow-covered streets, I took one step back and looked at my wife and three children (big children at this stage!) strolling, arm-in-arm ahead of me. That’s what happiness is – that’s what success is all about. Just in that moment.

We’re not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. And we rarely think about money – otherwise, I might work a little more often than I do! But we’ve never run out of the stuff and we always have more than enough for now. And that’s all anyone needs.
So let’s drop the obsession with money, financial freedom, passive income, greed – all turns of phrase used by my clients over the last couple of weeks – and let’s get on with looking at what we have, embracing what we have, savouring the wonderful moments that life offers us most of the time, if we’d only open our eyes, minds and hearts to them. Because, in actual fact, that’s what life is all about.

I spent some time with a client last week who talked of his fears for the future of his business, how he was afraid of what others might think of him if his business collapsed and, as a result, how he feared for his marriage too. Although he believed his problems to be unique (don’t we all), the conversation reminded me of many that I have had over the years. It reminded me of all the media stories – that “markets are gripped by fear”, people are “fearful for their jobs” and that people are “afraid they will lose their homes”. At times like this, perhaps it’s more than Personal Development that we need!

Of course, all these problems are, indeed, real problems. However, just how real are they? The author, Susan Jeffers has, for many years now, suggested that you “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway!” However, you must realize that fear is not real. Fear, similar to, is in the mind of the beholder! In fact, fear is nothing more than a useless thought. Such useless thoughts disable us from taking action – so that we wind up reacting and making matters worse.

Some time ago, during one of my Self Improvement Workshops, one of my now longstanding clients took exception to my saying that I simply couldn’t understand his statement that “after my Dad’s business failed, we had to sell our house and move into a rented flat. We couldn’t even afford heating oil that winter and we were all freezing and I was so upset that we were all freezing”. In a recent conversation with the same guy, he understood what I had been saying. Sure, he was freezing – a statement of fact. But acknowledging the fact and then feeling sorry for yourself, wallowing in it, victim-like, are two completely different things. The victim mindset disables your ability to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and do your very best.

Again, clients have said to me that it’s all very well for me to point out the fact that we shouldn’t react to bad things happening, we shouldn’t be afraid of what might happen or shouldn’t fear the consequences of actions we really need to take – after all, I’m sitting high up in the French Alps enjoying life. When I point out to them that I’ve been there – with a wife and three young children and $18.58 left in the bank (after we’d been done over by some unscrupulous “investors”) they take my point. What is the point in feeling sorry for yourself, what is the point of being afraid? What is the point of being paralysed by fear?

You’ve surrendered control if you’ve succumbed to fear. Your mind is controlling you. Eighty years of research proves that, when we allow our minds to control us, we are unable to pay attention to the reality of the moment, unable to notice the potential for opportunity and completely unable to take real action. Research also points out that the average adult has 50,000 random thoughts each day, many of them useless, some of them, like “fear”, toxic.

Calm your mind. Come to your senses – you have five of them, use them to understand and experience what’s going on and how you can best act to create the kind of success and happiness that you want. This is not some kind of positive mental attitude nonsense that I’m peddling. The research that I’ve already mentioned has proved that our subconscious minds create our version of so-called “reality”. Harness your subconscious mind – so that you can take real action and completely change your life.