Every thought is an affirmation, especially repetitive thoughts you think often. We are bombarded with negative messages, especially from the media. Positive affirmations can help redress the balance.  To help you do that, I’m going to cover how to write affirmations that are believable and get results.

Affirmations often get a bad wrap and many people think they don’t work. However, once you learn how to write affirmations that work for you, then you’ll really start to notice the benefits.

The key is to know how to write affirmations that your unconscious mind can accept.  This is so important and could be the reason why affirmations may not have worked for you until now.

So in this video blog, I cover 10 ways to write affirmations that are believable and get results.  Some of these ways are very different and may seem new to you.  That’s a good thing as it will give you a fresh approach to using affirmations to enhance all areas of your life.

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1. Make them believable

The first way to learn how to write affirmations effectively is to make them believable to you.  This step is so important and to really hammer it home, I would like you to say the affirmation “I am a millionaire” right now, out loud if possible!

When you say that, what do you notice? What thoughts do you notice? Was there an internal voice, saying something like, “Oh, no, you’re not”  or “No, that’s impossible” or “Don’t be so stupid”?  These are typical thoughts that come from an affirmative statement like this one.  They come from a part of your mind called the critical faculty, which protects you from new ideas that are not believable or don’t make sense.  It blocks these ideas from going into your unconscious or subconscious mind.

Andrew Parr describes the critical faculty is like a bouncer in a nightclub. The bouncer decides who to let into the nightclub and who to keep out.  Turn up with 10 other guys and you probably won’t be let in, as you’re seen as a threat.  A similar logic applies when you bring a new idea or affirmation to your critical faculty.  If the idea is seen as a significant threat to the status quo, then it won’t accept it.   Think of the critical faculty as your “door policy for new ideas”

“I Want” and “I Can” statements

To get past this door policy for new ideas you need to make the affirmation less direct and more believable.  A good way to do this is to use an “I want” statement. Say to yourself right now “I want to be a millionaire.” Say it out loud if you can. What’s that like? It’s likely that your critical faculty, your door policy for new ideas, will accept that more. It’s more believable. It might say something like… “Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe I can accept that.”

The “I want” statement provides a stepping stone to changing your belief.  Repeat this affirmation often and take action towards becoming a millionaire. Your belief will grow and then you can take it to the next step which is an “I can” affirmation. For example “I can be a millionaire.” Say that to yourself or out loud now. What’s that like?  Right now, it won’t seen as believable as “I want to be a millionaire”, but that will change with time, action and repetition.

“I am” statements

As time goes on, the affirmation “I am a millionaire” will start to become more believable, especially if you’re seeing your wealth increasing through taking specific actions backed up with the previous “I want” and “I can” affirmations.

Many personal development experts state that affirmations must start with “I am.” That’s fine as long as your critical faculty (the door policy for new ideas) accepts that direct “I am” affirmation. If it doesn’t, the affirmation will not stick or slip into your unconscious mind. Instead, It will be rejected, because it’s not believable.

Making your affirmations believable is a key step in learning how to write affirmations that work for you.

2. Write stepping stone affirmations

The second way to write affirmations that are believable and stick is to use stepping stone affirmations. For example, say this affirmation to yourself (or out loud if you can). “Every day I am making progress to becoming a millionaire.”  What do you notice inside as you say that?  What does your critical faculty think of this affirmation?  It seems more believable.

Here is another example.  “Every day I am becoming one step closer to becoming a millionaire”? Again, this is much more believable. Notice that both affirmations include the phrase “I am”.  This is fine because the affirmation itself is believable. The door policy for new ideas can accept this affirmation.

The classic stepping stone affirmation is, “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better,” by Émile Coué.

3. Be specific

When writing affirmations, make them as specific as you can. The affirmation, “I want to be rich,” is too vague. What does rich mean?  A much more specific affirmation would be “I want to earn $115,000 by the end of 2018”.  This affirmation has a specific amount of money and a specific date.

How about the affirmation, “I want to lose weight?” Again, that’s pretty vague. A much better affirmation could be “I enjoy wearing a size 12 dress.”

What about the affirmation, “I am confident“? Is that specific or vague? Let’s do a little exercise right now to answer this question. I invite you to complete the sentence below.

“Confidence means being able to …”

What comes up for you?  It will probably be different to someone else.  I encourage you to scroll down to the bottom of this article and enter your answer in the comments.  At the same time, notice what other people have entered.  Here are some examples from other people:

“Confidence means being able to….

…do something scary and know it will turn out okay”.

…do your best and be okay with the outcome”.

…just be myself and not rely on the opinions of others.”

…be comfortable with people from many backgrounds”.

…be able to pick up the phone and talk clearly and enthusiastically to 10 new customers a day.”

So you can see that the word “confidence” is actually quite vague.

Now, turn this sentence into an affirmation.  Here are some affirmations based on the above examples:

“I always do my best and I know that it will turn out okay.”

“I always feel that I can do it.”

“Today, I easily pick up the phone and talk clearly and enthusiastically to 10 new customers.”

Notice how much more specific these affirmations are.  Be as specific as you can with your affirmations. When thinking about how to write affirmations, remember that a vague affirmation will give you a vague and uncertain result.

4. Write affirmations in the positive

Your unconscious mind thinks in pictures rather than words and it doesn’t hear the word “No”.

Repeat the affirmation “I no longer eat Kentucky Fried Chicken,” to yourself (or out loud if you can). What does your brain imagine as you say that? If you’re like most people, you’re probably noticing the look, smell and taste of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Although the affirmation is about no longer eating Kentucky Fried Chicken, your brain still has to think about it and imagine it. This is the reason for writing your affirmations in the positive. A better affirmation could be “I only eat food that nourishes my body and makes me feel great.”

When writing affirmations, avoid using the words “no”, “not”, “never”, or can’t”.

5. Write affirmations to support your goals

You want to ensure that your affirmations are aligned with your goals.  The best way to do that is to create a list of goals first and write affirmations that support your goals.
For example, if you have a goal to reduce your weight from 80 kilos to 70 kilos, then affirmations that would support achieving this goal could include:

“I am quickly and easily achieving my ideal weight of 70 kilos.”

“I enjoy and look forward to exercising four times a week.”

“Everyday, I naturally eat food that supports my weight loss goals and I enjoy them too.”

So when considering how to write affirmations for yourself, have your bigger goals in mind and make the affirmations relevant.

6. Write outcome and process affirmations

The affirmation “I want to be a millionaire” is an outcome affirmation, as it’s not completely within your control.  The affirmation “I want to lose 20 kilos” is not completely within your control either.  Yes, there are things you can do to maximize the chances of making these a reality, but they are not completely guaranteed.

Outcome affirmations are about achieving some goal.  Process affirmations are about the steps that you can take to achieve that goal.

Examples of process affirmations that would support the “I want to be a millionaire” outcome affirmation would include:

“I am starting a new business that follows my passion.”

“I’m seeing 20 clients a week and making $2,000.”

“I invest 10% of everything I earn.”

All these affirmations are within your control and also support the higher goal of becoming a millionaire or achieving a certain level of income.

Remember to have a mix of outcome and process affirmations when you consider how to write affirmations that will work best for you.

7. Write words that trigger emotions

Affirmations are far more effective when you can experience the emotion at the same time.

To achieve this, use emotionally charged words in your affirmations. Words like inspired, powerful, happy, grateful, ecstatic, alive, joyful, delighted, loving, beautiful, secure, serene, triumphant, enthusiastic, peaceful, calm, great or wonderful.  For example “I feel wonderful fitting into a size 12 dress.”

When deciding how to write affirmations that inspire you to take action, include a few emotionally charged words.

8. Write affirmations that support a new identity

All beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and actions come from our sense of identity.  Therefore, the fastest way to make any kind of change is to develop a new sense of identity.  if you’re trying to lose weight, think about the sense of identity that a fitness trainer would have. My guess is that it would be something like, “I am someone that eats to nourish my body and I exercise daily to have the body that I deserve.”

For a fitness trainer, their whole identity is about eating to nourish the body and exercising daily. This will flow down to their beliefs about exercise and food choices.

For a millionaire, their sense of identity might be something like, “I am a person that makes money easily by making good business decisions, by investing wisely, and offering as much value to others as I possibly can.”

So write affirmations that support a new sense of identity.  Imagine being the person you desire and consider how to write affirmations that will help you become that person.

9. Use resources and experiences from the past.

I’m sure you have resources, emotional states or skills from the past or present that can be used as fuel for your future affirmations. For someone that is very successful in their career and has a hard time losing weight, a suitable affirmation could be:

“I use the drive and determination that I have in my career to achieve my ideal weight of 70 kilos.”

This affirmation will help the person to apply their existing resources of drive and determination and use these in a different area of life.  I encourage you to think about things that you’ve done well in the past or present, and then include these in affirmations to help you make changes in the future.

10. Write affirmations to automatically replace negative thoughts and feelings.

So my final tip in learning how to write affirmations that are effective is to have a toolbox of affirmations that you can use to immediately replace repetitive negative thoughts. Here is how to do it.

Start by finding a sheet of A4 paper. On the left, write down all your repetitive negative thoughts and any negative feelings that you regularly notice.  Now on the right side, I want you to write an affirmation that is the opposite of that.  Here are some examples.

If you find that you’re often judging people, your new affirmation might be “I accept everyone just the way they are”.  As soon as you notice yourself judging someone, you immediately replace this thought with the new affirmation.

If you often notice pain in the body (and you’ve already had it checked out medically), then you could immediately use the affirmation “Every cell of my body vibrates with energy and health.”

When you feel stuck, immediately replace that thought with “If I’m committed, there is always a way.”

When you find you’re focusing on things that you don’t have in your life or things that are not working, immediately replace that thought with “The more I focus on what I do want, the faster I will get it.”

The most important thing is to write the affirmations in advance but only use them when the need arises, when that repetitive negative thought or feeling comes up.

Next steps

Be creative about what you write affirmations about. Create affirmations for thinking patterns you want to change, life experiences you want to improve, experiences you want to have, feelings you want to enjoy, and how you would like your life to be like.

So these are my 10 ways to write affirmations that are both believable and get results. I encourage you to try them out and let me know how you get on.   Now you know exactly how to write affirmations that are specific, work for you, are aligned with your goals and will inspire you to act.

Thank you for reading this article.  If you enjoyed it and found it useful, then please share it with other people, or on social media.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Paul