Affirmations: Our Mental Vitamins

"Affirmations are our mental vitamins providing the supplementary positive thoughts we need to balance the barrage of negative events we experience daily." (Tia Walker)

Edwene Gaines, author of Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity, recommends that if you want to conquer your goals, you take the 21-Day Affirmation Challenge (http://ourprosperouslife.com/21-day-affirmation-challenge/2014/03/31). Make a list of goals, then make a list of positive, life-affirming statements to support each goal.  (If you are a Christian, you can make a list of 21 Bible verses.) Write them down on index cards.  For example, "I am happily vacationing two months of the year in a tropical paradise and working just four days a week on my own business." (http://jackcanfield.com/visualize-and-affirm-your-desired-outcomes-a-step-by-step-guide/)  After 21 days, the aim is for the statements to have passed from your conscious into your subconscious mind.

As Jack Canfield says, "Visualization and affirmations allow you to change your beliefs, assumptions and opinions about the most important person in your life -- YOU!"  If you set aside a day to add up how much self-talk you do, you would be amazed at how much time you spend in the process.  It is too easy to get bogged down in negative self-talk, to beat yourself up about what has gone wrong in your life.  Unlearn the habit of negative self-talk; it will uplift your spirit.

As a writer, I appreciate stories of authors who overcome rejection and go on to publish their books..  Jack Canfield, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, was rejected 144 times for his manuscript "Anthologies don't sell," was the standard response he received.  Jack Canfield employed visualization and affirmation to overcome the repeated rejections.

"When we were writing the very first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, we took a copy of the New York Times bestseller list, scanned it into our computer, and using the same font as the newspaper, typed Chicken Soup for the Soul into the number one position in the "Paperback Advice, How To and Miscellaneous" category.  We printed several copies and hung them around the office.  Less than two years later, our book was the number one book in that category and stayed there for over a year!"(http://jackcanfield.com/visualize-and-affirm-your-desired-outcomes-a-step-by-step-guide/)

https://www.powerofpositivity.com/11-powerful-affirmations-help-treat-depression-anxiety/

Ninety-five Percent of What You Do is the Result of Your Habits

"Ninety-five percent of what you do is the result of your habits, whether helpful or hurtful." 

(Brian Tracy)

I always considered my Grandad to be a very successful man.  So much of his life was governed by his good habits.  Every morning, he would wake up his daughter, my Aunty Marilyn, with two ties in his hand.  She would choose one for him to wear to the school where he taught.  That habit was a good bonding experience for father and daughter.  It was also good for my Grandad's students because they got to see a different tie each day rather than the same pattern and colour.    Every day, Grandad would stay after school for an hour to help the weaker students.  In 40 years of teaching, he never had a student who didn't like him.  Every day, he would walk to school (two miles there, two miles back).  He lived until he was 94 years old.   Every day, he would eat Grandma's dinner (often a casserole) and reply, "That was delicious, Dorothy!"  He was married for 62 years.  Every summer day, he cultivated his garden.  It bloomed until it took over his entire back yard.  Every visit with his grandchildren, he would tell us stories, often about his teaching career, punctuated by his hearty laugh.  He served as my inspiration to become a teacher.

Grandad had discovered the secret to success:  forming and keeping good habits.  Brian Tracy maintains that:  "Ninety-five percent of what you do is the result of your habits, whether helpful or hurtful."(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ8f73e10l8) If you want to achieve new goals, here is Z. Hereford's seven step guide to forming and keeping a new habit (http://www.essentiallifeskills.net/develop-good-habits.html):

1.  Clearly decide on a specific habit.  For example, rather than saying "I will spend less time on Facebook," say "I will spend no more than 10 minutes a day on Facebook".  

2.  Never allow an exception to the rule.  If you spend 20 minutes on Wednesday on Facebook, don't start making excuses for your behaviour.  The next day, get right back to 10 minutes.

3.  Discover your triggers and obstacles.  For example, if you want to lose weight, and you eat when you get frustrated, be prepared.  Look for healthy ways of dealing with your frustration.

4.  Develop a plan.  For instance, Benjamin Franklin wanted to improve himself.  He listed 13 virtues that he wanted to acquire and spent 13 weeks trying to master each of these virtues.  He kept a journal of his progress and discovered that certain virtues helped the acquisition of other virtues.

5.  Employ visualization and affirmation.  Visualization is a powerful way to integrate a new habit into your routine.  "Affirmations program the subconscious with the right mindset for establishing a new habit".  

6.  Enlist the support of family and friends.  No one can do it alone.  If you are held accountable for your actions, there is a better chance you will stick to your plan.

7.  Find healthy ways to reward yourself.  Treat yourself to a new book, movie or concert.  If you are short on cash, visit a friend you haven't seen for a long time or go to a free art or history exhibit.  

I will leave you with this simple thought:  How can you expect to get different results if you keep using the same old habits?  Form new habits, lifelong habits like my Grandad did.  You will be on the road to success!

Note:  Read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey https://www.amazon.ca/Habits-Highly-Effective-People-Powerful/dp/1455892823.

http://coachingpotentials.com/2015/07/30/first-we-make-our-habits-and-then-our-habits-make-us_our-daily-bread/

Your Imagination is Everything: It is the Preview of Life's Coming Attractions

http://www.thrive-team.com/2014/08/see-it-to-believe-it-the-power-of-visualization/

Two years ago, I wrote a post called Conceive, Believe, Achieve about the efficacy of visualization to reach your goals (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2015/01/conceive-believe-achieve.html).  Visualization might be rare in your world, but in the world of professional sports, it's commonplace. Many athletes, including gymnast Mary Lou Retton, have proven that it works.

Colin Hiles, aka The Mindset Guy, maintains that visualization is the greatest accelerator to achieving your goals.  In his video, "How to Visualize to Achieve Your Goals Faster" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxoToJCWA44), he points out that your subconscious mind plays such a vital role in shaping your actions.  "Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions," maintained Albert Einstein.  If you focus on what you don't want, and that's what worriers do, you will likely attract trouble.  If you focus on what you do want, and that's what people who pray or meditate do, you will likely attract good results.  

Colin Hiles explains that in visualization, in the process of developping a new mindset, you start with the invisible and make it visible.  For example, if you want to lose weight, you see yourself as that thin person.  Your thoughts are very deliberate at first.  He recommends that you focus on images as the subconscious mind understands images rather than words.  Furthermore, the subconscious cannot distinguish between something that is real and something that is vividly imagined.  If you close your eyes and hold the image vividly enough, you should get a physiological response.  For example, if you imagine yourself sucking on a lemon, you might start to pucker up.  However, if you imagine yourself vacationing on a beautiful island, you'll probably find your body relaxing.

Here is Colin Hiles' six step process of VISUALIZATION:

1.  decide what goals you want to achieve

2.  relax; get into an Alpha state, the bridge between the conscious and the subconscious

3.  alternate between imagining (belief/desire) and feeling (talk and act as if you have already reached your goal)

4.  focus (act ideally)

5.  repeat (twice a day for 5 minutes)

6.  cheat (use Colin Miles' step by step audio guide)

https://quotefancy.com/quote/3150/Albert-Einstein-Imagination-is-everything-It-is-the-preview-of-life-s-coming-attractions

My Vision Board 2017

Imagination x Vividness = Reality

I remember reading Glenna's Goal Book in the original edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul back in 1993.  Glenna was a divorced mother of three with a house payment, a car payment and a dream.  She attended a seminar where the speaker explained the principal of I x V = R (Imagination x Vividness = Reality).  She decided to make a goal scrapbook to help achieve her goals which she succeeded in doing right down to the last one on her list http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2015/01/glennas-goal-book.html.

Like Glenna, I am a goal-oriented person.  Two years ago, I made something similar to a goal scrapbook, a vision board.  At the end of the year, I examined the pictures and realized that I had achieved much of what I set out to do.  Last year, I made a second vision board.  Once again, I was successful at reaching the majority of my goals.  

The key word is "vision".  Visualization is a vital part of the process.  Study the pictures and set them in your mind.  Think about them as you go about your day.  Picture yourself as already reaching your goal, of crossing the finish line.  

   

My vision board for 2017 courtesy Thomas Jonasson.

In the centre of my board is the Bible verse:  The same Power who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you (Romans 8:11).  What daily inspiration for my journey!  

My goals include:

1.  Supporting Thomas in his musical endeavours.

2.  Creating a War Room or Prayer Room.

3.  Reading the Bible from cover to cover.

4.  Editing my new picture book, Mr. Tufts' Ties this winter.

5.  Using my time more wisely.

6.  Maintaining a healthy eating routine.  

7.  Sending my picture book manuscript The Hockey Stick to Canadian publishers.

8.  Organizing my space more wisely.

9.  Sending Jacqueline to HDCH this fall.

10.  Sending Jacqueline to Kentucky on a mission trip this spring.

11.  Rob and I spending our 25th anniversary in the Maritimes this summer.

12.  Signing my first book contract!

13.  Reading 26 books, one every other week (added after photo was taken).

So why not make your own Vision Board this year?  

Conceive, Believe, Achieve

"Imagination rules the world." (Napoleon Bonaparte)

Since today is the first day of 2015, I thought it would be a good day to focus on goals.  Anyone who reads my posts regularly knows that my dream is to publish a book.  My goal is easily identifiable.  Is it achievable, though?

Read my post "Whoever Believes Will Achieve" (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/11/whoever-believes-will-achieve.html).  What stuck out in my mind when I re-read it recently was that the mind makes little or no distinction between image and reality if the image is vivid enough.  That is powerful stuff!  

Successful athletes use visualization techniques to improve their performance.  Once such athlete, Mary Lou Retton, used to carry around index cards to help her visualize nailing a gymnastics routine. Her Olympic medal haul included one gold, two silver and two bronze.

"Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." 

Napoleon Hill, author of the above quote, is a believer in visualization.  According to Brian Tracy, author of Goals:  How to Get Everything You Want -- Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible (see http://www.amazon.ca/Goals-Everything-Faster-Thought-Possible/dp/1605094110visualization) visualization activates "the law of attraction", drawing people, circumstances and resources into your life to help you achieve that goal.  Tracy also maintains that visualization activates "the law of correspondence".  If you change your mental pictures inside, it will change your outside world. You become what you think about most of the time.  

Brian Tracy says visualization includes four parts:

1.  frequency:  how often do you spend visualizing an image 

2.  duration:  how long do you spend visualizing an image 

3.  vividness:  how vivid or clear is your image

4.  intensity:  the amount of emotion you put into that image

If you are an archery expert, you will appreciate Tracy's analogy:  You can't hit a target if you can't see it.  The author recommends that you visualize late at night, thereby enabling your mind to accept that at a deeper level during sleep.  The other optimum time to visualize is early in the morning, before the mind is filled with the day's activities.  

"Have complete faith that your pictures will materialize."

According to Tracy, "[Visualization] can do more to help you step on the accelerator of your own potential than any other exercise you engage in."  So, as you write a list of new year's resolutions for 2015, remember:  Conceive a goal.  Believe that you can reach that goal!  Achieve it!

http://www.mechanictomillionaire.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Epi-87-M2M.jpg