Image Credit: © Himanshu Sarpotdar
…and the little engine puffed and he puffed as he went up the hill… I think I can… I think I can… The little engine got closer to the top. I KNOW I can… I KNOW I can! And then the little engine raced over the top of the hill and down the other side. The little engine was so happy and so proud. He was singing… I KNEW I COULD! I KNEW I COULD!
Do you know what that little engine was doing? He was using affirmations. I bet some of you just rolled your eyes. ”Oh god, he’s gonna talk about that affirmation crap. Doesn’t he know that affirmations never work?” And unto the nonbeliever I doth speaketh: What you are saying is an affirmation that is working. 
What Is An Affirmation
Affirmations have been called by a few different names: self-talk, self-suggestion, auto-suggestion. They are simply the things we say to ourselves over and over again. They aren’t some new-age thing, they’ve been around for thousands and thousands of years, ever since man learned to communicate.
Before we started writing things down we told our children stories and proverbs that were designed to teach the younger generation attitudes and habits. Maybe you are familiar with some of these… Beauty is only skin deep. A penny saved is a penny earned. A fool and his money are soon parted.
The Boy Scout oath, the US’ Pledge of Allegiance to their flag, the Apostles’ Creed, marriage vows… These are all forms of affirmations. But they are borrowed affirmations. So they are only effective when they are genuinely internalised so that their borrowed quality is replaced by personal belief.
The use of affirmations as a tool for personal development is one of the oldest practices in civilisation. Every culture for at least the last 5000 years has made use of this powerful tool. The literature of all the great world religions is filled with affirmations. Egyptian, Greek, and Roman philosophic writings are full of them. Even modern literature from around the world makes extensive use of affirmations.
Why They Work
Affirmations can be positive or negative, true or false. But they all work if they are repeated often enough. What they are doing is programming your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind is a very powerful tool, but it is as stubborn as an ox. If you tell it something that isn’t true enough times, instead of dismissing the untruth, it does whatever it can to make it true. It might give you a little more determination or confidence to do something that eventually brings about the transformation of the untrue thing into reality.
Trust in your subconscious… it’ll move heaven and earth to prove you right. And be careful what you feed it because it has no concept of right or wrong, no idea about positive and negative. Negative affirmations work just as powerfully as positive ones. Some might even say that the negative ones work even more powerfully. I don’t personally believe that, it is just that we are bombarded with so much negativity that it seems like the negative affirmations are stronger.
Different Types of Affirmations
I’ve already mentioned borrowed affirmations, the ones we get from somebody else like in books and proverbs. Usually the truth and ideas that these affirmations are based are general in nature. To support your own plans for reaching the goals you have chosen, you need more specific and personal affirmations. They don’t need to be limited to sayings and proverbs. You can express them in a number of different ways:
- Verbal affirmations: Everyone talks to themselves. What you say to yourself about the attitudes you want to develop and the feelings you want to have are verbal affirmations.
- Visual affirmations: Any item you can use as a visual reminder of one of your goals affirms your intention to achieve it.
- Action affirmations: A repeated action designed to keep you focussed on your goals has the power of an affirmation.
- Numerical affirmations: A series of numbers with a personal significance can serve as an affirmation. When I was in sales (insurance) I used have “10-5-3-2″ taped to my telephone in my office. It stood for: 10 phone calls leads to 5 appointments leads to 3 completed sales presentations which results in 2 sales.
Why Repetition Is Key
Ideas are not instantly absorbed the first time you are exposed to them. It usually takes at least six exposures to an idea for it to become completeely internalised so that it becomes instantly available for use. It works like this…
| First Exposure (rejection) | I reject it because it conflicts with my preconceived ideas. |
| Second Exposure (resistance) | Well, I understand it, but I can’t accept it. |
| Third Exposure (partial acceptance) | I agree with the idea, but have reservations about its use. |
| Fourth Exposure (full acceptance) | You know, that idea expresses just what I’ve been thinking. |
| Fifth Exposure (partial assimilation) | I used that idea today… it’s terrific! |
| Sixth Exposure (full assimilation) | I gave that idea to a friend today. In the truest sense of the word, the idea now belongs to me. |
Personal growth, like physical growth is gradual. Your one year old son may be able to roll a ball to you, but you wouldn’t expect him to be signed with a professional football team, just yet. You expect him to go through a period of growth. The same growth process will operate in your life as you begin to use affirmations to displace your old attitudes and establish new ones. The difference is that you can speed up the process of your personal growth, but the physical growth of your potential star football player is ruled largely by time. You are already physically and emotionally mature, you can, therefore, control and direct your own personal growth to a large extent.
It is important to be patient as you begin to use affirmations. Allow the process to work in its own due time. It will take time to replace the negative attitudes that have been building up during your entire life.
What Is An Affirmation
Yes, I have already given you a definition of what an affirmation is, but I want to leave you with an updated one…
An affirmation is a positive declaration that describes what you want to be, what you want to have, or how you want to live your life.
A Parting Word
Affirmations are not magic. They are but one tool in your success toolbox. They work a lot like a carpenter’s hammer… pick one up and softly tap the head of a nail and that nail’s not going into the wood any time soon, but hold that hammer with confidence and your blows are true and repeated then the nail is in the wood right up to the hilt. Do that enough times and before you know it, you’ve built a whole house!
Because affirmations are so powerful you have to be careful how you construct ones that will boost your success rather than hinder it, so in my next article I’m going to talk about how to write your own affirmations.
Till next time…
Help me write more great articles like this, fuel my mojo with a coffee!
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Thanks for sharing this Steve. Some great tips here for creating positive affirmations.
I’m not a big fan of verbal affirmation for some reason I’m not really sure why but I do use a lot of visual affirmations (even though I didn’t realise it until reading your article)
I think the problem people don’t realise is that those times when they oh I’m not very good at that, that they’re using a negative affirmation that will cause to not be very good at the thing they’re complaining about. Such is the power of affirmations.
Everybody uses affirmations every day. They just don’t realise it. Is the dark side stronger? No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.
Twitter: SteveYoungs
Hi Steve,
Unfortunately, you’re right. Affirmations work. Positive and negative. You get more of what you focus on. I say ‘unfortunately’ because I tend to think about even good stuff in negative terms. This is clearly not effective
Looking forward to the next installment
Hi Eleanor!
Lovely to see you back again. Yes it is a very easy and very dangerous trap to fall into, expressing positive things in a negative way. Even something as innocent as “I will not be late” is actually a negative affirmation. Your subconscious (or your conscious for that matter) has no idea how to “not” something. You can’t “not” anything. So what happens is the “not” is dismissed and you are left with “I will be late”. That’s something your subconscious can turn into reality for you.
Twitter: SteveYoungs
Those positive affirmations are wonderful and necessary for growth but it also critical to stop the negative affirmations (I guess that doesn’t work right- is there a word for putting yourself down?) anyway talk yourself up not down.
.-= Ralph´s last blog ..Feedback and Connections =-.
Hey Ralph!
Yeah, keeping the negative out is really hard. The best thing you can do is pile in more positives to tip the balance.
Thanks for commenting, mate.
Twitter: SteveYoungs
[...] my last article, The Little Engine That Could, I brought up the concept of “affirmations”. In this article I’m going to show [...]
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