To Be Or Not To Be - The Power Of Affirmations

Tennis champion Andre Agassi was programming himself through affirmations at 3-4 years old. Multi gold Olympic medalist Chris Hoy has said the most important thing he ever learnt was regularly imagining himself winning ahead of time.

Having been involved in martial arts for decades and mindfulness practises, I’m a great advocate of affirmations.

At Unlimited Courage we use affirmations to set the mind up for the mission ahead and have found the following points to be essential if anyone is going to get the most out of them.

Here are top 10 points to power up those affirmations.

1. Clarity - Have clarity on the goal and the man fulfilling it. For instance, if you wish to speak to a packed crowd in a specific prestigious venue in London, then the venue name should be stated. This is more specific than focusing on simply speaking to a large crowd in London. An athlete that focuses on going to the Olympics is far less clear than one who is focused on winning a medal.
2. Put emotion into each affirmation - Words such as excited, overjoyed work well. The emotions are felt whilst reading the affirmations which combines, sound, feeling and visualisation.
3. Read slowly - Read your affirmations slowly. If you are in a rush it’s a pointless exercise. Slow, deliberate reading aloud, has far more physiological and psychological impact.
4. Use present tense - Starting with “I am” signals to the mind that you already are, whilst “I will be” signifies you are not. We tend to think in images and symbols. Certain words mean different things to different people and will create particular imagery. The words of affirmations should be chosen with care and attention.
5. Perform them 3-5 times a day - Regularity is key. Many people talk negatively to themselves every day so frequency of positive affirmations eventually overrides the conditioned narrative people habitually use towards themselves.
6. Record the affirmations - We have found the more senses involved in affirmations the better. A combination of reading and listening to affirmations has a powerful impact on their efficiency.
7. Add music - I often record my clients personalised affirmations for them and add some stirring music to the background. This adds to the emotion and bolsters the impact of the affirmations. Affirmations are not just a robotic repetition of statements but emotionally charged ones to feel in the present, the success of the future.
8. Choose 4-5 key affirmations - Less is more effective and more likely to work. Pin pointing focus to several key points is far more likely to work than having too many.
9. Read or listen to affirmations 5-10 times each time - Each time you read or listen to your affirmations, you should be left focused and inspired. Once is never enough to create this, so repeat several times over.
10. Be bold - It takes a degree of bravery to specifically write down what you desire and the man you wish to be. As soon as you do this it will likely evoke feelings and thoughts of lack, inability and past failures. When first writing them down, ignore these conditioned responses. Give yourself permission to write in an uninhibited way. The lack of self belief is often an old mind script that can be challenged and dismantled as a separate issue and practise.

Coming up next - Why we look at what needs to be sacrificed first and the most important point, forging the character of the man to enable him to do great things.