“It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.” —Muhammad Ali
Sometimes even though we wake up each morning with a positive intention, we end up spending our day doing the aimless task, and just before we go to sleep, we promise ourselves tomorrow is going to be a different day. The next day comes by, and we repeat the process.
We know what we want from life in our minds and hearts. Yet we sell ourselves short.
We watch motivational videos day in and day out, thinking that answers to our questions lie within those videos.
Maybe we think that watching many motivational videos is a productive task.
Or sometimes, we are just so afraid of facing our fear that we seek to spend time with other people to avoid doing the things we are supposed to do.
We fail to see that the very people we find comfort in, these same people, might be stunting our growth.
Just because they cannot achieve something, they will tell you that you cannot achieve it.
And just because we have not taken the time to work on ourselves, we go along with them and give up on our dreams.
Yes, it is okay to watch motivational videos when we feel low and need those words of encouragement. But any desire without action is just that – A Desire!
Affirmation Without Feelings and Actions Is Just A Desire
I have learned from my personal experience that affirmation without feelings and actions is just a desire.
When I started writing for this blog, I had big dreams. I even got through the limiting beliefs that I am not a good writer.
I fell off the wagon after working on my website and writing a few blog posts.
Why?
Because running a blog takes time, patience, dedication, and PERSISTENCE.
I had plenty of time available, but I lacked patience, commitment, and, most important of all, persistence.
I set my expectations way high. I assumed I would write a few blog posts, then magically, I would get lots of traffic to my website.
Then I was also focused on reading and absorbing other people’s beliefs about how most blogging websites get lost in this vast world of the internet.
Instead of learning and figuring out how to drive traffic to my website, I just went back to living my life.
Day in and day out, I aimlessly spent my time watching many videos on YouTube.
Sometimes I watch a video to seek an answer to my question, “I have a nagging desire to start writing blog posts again, but why am I unable to pull myself to take action?”
“Why do I keep wasting my time every single day, pretending I am being productive but have nothing to show at the end of the day?”
I, just like everyone else, failed to see that I was just trying to avoid the big elephant in the room.
And that is FEAR!
Zig Ziglar said Fear is nothing more than False Evidence Appearing Real
Maybe it is fear of failure, or perhaps it is fear of success. Who knows?
But I learned that if we sit down quietly without any distraction and notice what makes us uncomfortable, we can learn a lot about ourselves.
Affirmations Will Not Help Unless We Change Our Beliefs
I learned that I still held onto deep-rooted beliefs from my past, and I decided to change that.
I already had watched so many motivational videos. So, I decided to do the steps these speakers suggest changing the old beliefs and replacing them with new ones.
One thing stood out from almost all the videos I watched, and that was what Earl Nightingale said, “We become what we think about.”
Whether we think consciously or subconsciously, it does not matter. But what we believe of ourselves subconsciously will always triumph over conscious thought.
According to The National Science Foundation (NSF), human beings on average have 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts, 80% are negatives, and 95% are exact as the previous day.
Suppose we become determined and decide to monitor our negative thoughts and change them. Do you think it is possible to do so?
It is not possible for two reasons. First, it is impossible to monitor every thought, and second, the change will be temporary.
We can achieve only so much through conscious efforts, but we can be, do, and have whatever we desire in life if it is a habit.
The Reason Affirmations Do Not Work
Affirmation is a statement that defines what we think and what we believe of ourselves.
For example, if I say, “I am not smart!”
That statement is what I accepted wholeheartedly, and I believe it is accurate of myself.
If I am okay not being smart, then repeatedly affirming the statement will not bother me. Repetition of any affirmation just confirms the belief.
Meaning I will subconsciously behave and do things that prove that I am not smart.
What if I have been affirming this for years, and now I want to change that?
Will changing the affirmation to “I am smart” make me smart suddenly?
Not really!
Eventually, maybe you will start accepting and believing your new belief, but not until you change it at a subconscious level.
1 Simple Way to Use Affirmations Correctly
The reason affirmations do not work is because affirmations are just sentences we create without any feeling behind them.
Also, there is no confirmation in your reality to prove your affirmation to be true.
For example, if I do not hold a job but intend to earn money and affirm to myself, “I earn $10,000.00 a month,” two things will happen.
First, you get uncomfortable from inside
Second, your mind will echo back to you saying, “No, you do not.”
So how do we create a feeling behind the affirmations?
There are several ways to create a feeling, but I have found what Joseph Alai teaches helpful.
Before you go to sleep, create a 30-second scene in your imagination and play that scene in a loop while falling asleep.
He emphasizes that the scene you create must be in the first person.
If you want to change your old programming of not being smart, create a 30-second scene inside your head where you observe yourself in the first person.
Hear people saying to you, “You are so smart.”
And you reply saying, “Thank you! It feels nice to be smart.”
If you are interested in learning more about Joseph Alai’s teaching, please check out his videos on YouTube.
Conclusion
Using affirmations to change deep-rooted beliefs does work. However, just affirming sentences without feelings behind them will do nothing. There are many ways to change deep-rooted beliefs, but one must become aware of that self-limiting belief.
Awareness is the cure!
Become aware of your self-imposed and self-limiting beliefs and remove those beliefs permanently from your subconscious mind by correctly using affirmations.
