When you hear the word affirmations what do you think about? I used to imagine someone standing in front of the mirror saying something like, “You are one awesome human being and, darn it, people like you!” The problem with this approach to affirmations is that it is a short road to complacency and maybe even delusions. It may help with contentment but it doesn’t make room for progress. Consider this formula for happiness:

CONTENTMENT + PROGRESS = HAPPINESS

In the Life Mastery Personal Development Coaching program one of the tools I teach is the effective use of affirmations. Affirmations are a way to progress and accomplish something in life that doesn’t work in traditional goal setting and tracking. Perhaps you want to be a better listener, be more cheerful, or have a more positive attitude. How would you set measurable goals in those areas? This is where written, daily affirmations are so effective. They are also an excellent way to break a plateau in an any area where you feel stuck. Try the following approach without missing a day for sixty days and I promise you will be hooked! It is the closest thing I have found to a magic pill.

1. Get a spiral notebook and WRITE your 5-10 most important affirmations/goals EVERYDAY. Never miss a day!
2. Find wording that inspires you.
3. Once you have refined them and made the verbiage as powerful as you can write them from MEMORY. (After the first few weeks this process will take you 1 – 2 minutes).
4. Write your affirmation/goals as if you have already accomplished them. “I have excellent posture” or “I am a good listener” are examples of some I write.
5. Always write them in the positive using positive language. Write I am financially independent rather than I am debt free.
6. You may have no idea how each goal will be accomplished but write them anyway. These are often the ones where the magic happens.

As you try this program miracles will happen in your life. Often it will be because you have kept focused on your goal and other times it will seem as if supernatural forces are at work. The success I have found with this program has been incredible! My personal growth accelerated in every area of my life. Unfortunately, many people are content in mediocrity or just won’t pay the price. Don’t let that be you! There is excitement and success in abundance in the world if you reach for it and writing your goals as affirmations is one way to do that.

For this system to work you must be consistent. Consistency is key to personal growth. A great work out here and there is good but a consistent workout program will change you. Taking a vitamin here and there is good but will not do for you what consistent vitamins will do. A prayer here and there is good but consistent prayer is a relationship. A hit-and-miss approach to important things leads to mediocrity and there is no contentment, progress or happiness in that. Be CONTENT, add PROGRESS, and find HAPPINESS.