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  AFFIRMATIONS

  How I Completely Overhauled My Mindset To Hunt Down Success and Destroy Depression

  Ó Copyright 2014 by Isaac Berglind- All rights reserved.

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  Table Of Contents

  Introduction

  What Are Affirmations?

  ● The three types of affirmations

  ● Replacing bad beliefs to create affirmations

  ● Create your own affirmations

  Why Affirmations Are So Powerful

  ● You need to know the “why”

  ● We become what we think about

  ● Why we become what we think about

  ● How affirmations take advantage of this

  How Affirmations Changed My Life

  How To Use Affirmations

  ● Different ways to use affirmations

  ● Daily habit

  ● Best times to use affirmations

  Conclusion

  INTRODUCTION

  First off, I want to congratulate you for picking up this book. Not because I’m cocky about any of the things I will teach you here, but more because you’re the kind of person who knows the people have the capacity to decide exactly who they want to be.

  You picked up this book because you know that you are not limited to who you’ve been in the past or who other people want you to be. You know that it’s your life, that you have the ability to literally decide exactly who you are going to be.

  It’s great to be aware of the fact that this is possible, but then comes the big question- how do you actually do this? Well there are so many different ways to do this, but in this book I’m going to talk about a method that’s been extremely powerful for me, and that’s affirmations.

  I will talk about how affirmations changed my life more in detail in a separate chapter, I want really want you guys to know how affirmations affected me personally, and why I’m so passionate about them and self-development in general.

  I went through a 6-month depression in my sophomore year of high school. I missed many days of school, had anxiety attacks, and was borderline suicidal. Had I not learned that I could decide who I want to be as a person, and more importantly not taken action on this principle, I may not be here today. I may very well have gone through the suicide.

  I never want to sit here and tell you “now my life is perfect”. It’s not. No one’s is. But it’s a hell of a lot better. I’ve never had any problems with depression since that realization, and I passionately pursue my goals every single day. Again- this is an extremely short version of the full story. I want to expand on this in greater detail in a separate chapter so that readers like you can understand how much affirmations impacted my life. I just wanted to establish right here in the beginning why I’m so passionate about this subject.

  Affirmations have also given me the confidence I need to go after the aforementioned goals every day. If you want to do anything in life, you have to first believe that it’s possible. You need to have empowering beliefs in your life that guide you toward your goal- not pull away from it.

  If you have a kid who believes that he is a terrible student, why in the hell would he spend a single second studying? He already believes he’s a terrible student! This student needs to take on the belief that he has the capacity to be a straight-A-student. One of the ways you can take on these new empowering beliefs is through affirmations. How?

  The mind is very, very powerful. It can literally take on any belief that is repeated to itself over and over again with enough emotional intensity. We can either take advantage of this, or let this take advantage of us.

  This is good news for some people, and bad news for others. For people that want to be proactive of their lives and take control, this will be great news. But for people that don’t necessarily want to do what it takes to be deliberate about the beliefs you take on as a person- might not be so lucky.

  You see- in this book I will talk extensively about affirmations and how to use them, but I think something that’s even more important is knowing exactly what the affirmations are doing.

  Earl Nightingale sums up the purpose of affirmations (and a lot of other things) in one sentence: “We become what we think about.”

  Every successful person on the planet knows this. It is so vitally important to condition your mind and beliefs to the ones that will serve you most. THAT is the most important principle I will talk about in this book. The act of affirmations is merely a very powerful strategy to take advantage of this principle.

  To use affirmations in the best way possible, you need to understand exactly what they are. That’s what I want to talk about in the next chapter, so if you’re ready, dive in and let’s get started.

  What Are Affirmations?

  I’m sure most of you have a fairly basic understanding of what affirmations are, but regardless it’s always valuable to review the basics.

  By definition, an affirmation is a positive statement that you repeat to yourself of what you want for yourself or your life. It’s pretty simple.

  If you want to make more money, your affirmation could be “I will make x amount of money by the end of this month”. If you want to get in shape, it could be “It is July 2017 and I am below 10% body fat and in the best shape of my life.”

  There are no real rules to affirmations, it’s just you basically saying “I will achieve this goal”.

  An affirmation does two big things. First of all, it establishes a confidence in your ability to have/do/be anything the affirmation is talking about. It begins to install that new empowering belief. Affirmations also increase motivation, because of the fact that you are thinking about your goal. The more you hold on to your goal in your mind, the more you are going to want it.

  The Three Types of Affirmations

  The other thing that’s vitally important about affirmations is the kind of one you use. There are three different ways to affirm something, and it’s important for you to choose the type that speaks
best to you.

  1. Present Tense

  These are the affirmations that say “I am”. They affirm the goal like it has already happened. They could be things like “I am a millionaire” or “I am under 10% body fat”. Obviously there are some pros and cons to this one.

  The good thing about present tense affirmations is that it feels more real, and you get into the mindset of already having achieved that goal. It can be a lot more emotionally engaging.

  However, it’s also much more easy to be rejected by your conscious mind. Your mind recognizes that it hasn’t actually happened yet, and that may make it feel fake and unauthentic to some.

  Really, you just have to see what works for you. Some people might really like it, and to others it may feel downright dishonest.

  2. Future Tense

  For goals, this is my personal favorite. This changes the affirmation from “I am” to “I will”. I like this because it feels more authentic, and it allows you to set a specific date, like “I will make x amount of money by June 2017”.

  It also has a sense of confidence. You’re telling yourself that you absolutely will achieve this goal by this date. It feels very clear, deliberate and effective to me. But you may be completely different from me! You may like present tense affirmations more- and in that case you should absolutely use whatever feels best to you.

  3. Natural Tense

  These affirmations are a bit different. These are more about the beliefs that you want to have for yourself, rather than the goals you want to achieve. They are things like “All that I need to succeed is within me”. Or, “Every day I’m moving closer and closer toward my goals”.

  Having the confidence to go out and achieve your goals is vital. Natural tense affirmations allow you to really build that confidence and remind yourself that it really is more than possible.

  In conclusion, choose whatever type of affirmation feels best to you. It’s important that you don’t just say these affirmations, but that they feel emotionally engaging to you as well.

  And be creative! There’s no right or wrong way to affirm anything as long as it feels honest and important to you. If there is a way you like to word things, even if it’s different from the norm, absolutely do it.

  Replace bad thoughts or current affirmations

  One really effective way to create affirmations is to look for current things you think or believe, realize that they may be detrimental to your life, and replace them. If you hate your job, this may cause you to have a miserable time at work every day.

  Sure, maybe it isn’t your ideal job. I get it- I’m a delivery driver for Jimmy John’s right now earning money for college tuition. This isn’t my dream career. Last summer I was a cashier at a grocery store for the same purpose. Not exactly what I want to be doing. But if I told myself I hated it, I would have been miserable.

  The reality is being a delivery driver isn’t that bad. You just deliver sandwiches to people. There’s nothing to hate about it. I try to take on the belief that I really like my job! It gets me out of the house each day, I am doing it for a great purpose (going to college) and my colleagues are really nice!

  That’s the belief I condition for myself at that job. If I believed I hated my job- my shifts would feel much, much longer and more painful.

  So if you have a belief or thought you realize isn’t doing you a lot of justice for your life- replace it with the opposite, better option. This is a great way to figure out what you can improve in your life with affirmations.

  You Can Create Your Own Affirmations, Too

  Most people tend to search for affirmations online that have worked well for other people. And that’s great- it’s always good to get inspiration and find ones you may not have thought of. But also know that you can create your own affirmations as well.

  It’s very beneficial to do this. Affirmations you create will just feel more real and personable to you because you made them. They are tailored to your life and your life alone.

  So use a mix of affirmations. Find ones other people made that inspire you, but also create your own! Remember: all that we are doing with affirmations is constantly conditioning a goal that we have set for ourselves. And there are many, many ways to do this that you get to choose from.

  You should also realize that you do not need to pick one kind of affirmation and only use that. If you find that you like 2 of the affirmation types, or even all 3 of them- use all of the ones that feel right to you! There’s nothing wrong with having a mix of different types of affirmations.

  If you think of a new type of affirmation that you like, even better. The more custom and tailored the affirmation is to you, the more effective it will be. Listen to yourself and figure out which affirmations speak the loudest to you.

  Why Affirmations Are So Powerful

  In order to understand how to use affirmations, I think it’s so important to know just exactly why they are so powerful. I remember when I first tried to use affirmations- I knew they were powerful, but I wasn’t exactly sure why they were so powerful.

  As a result, I just kind of went through the motions as I was doing them. It was more of a thing I did to “check off the list” and just move on with my day. I wasn’t very emotionally engaged with them, and as result I didn’t gain a whole lot in return.

  Had I known the principle behind affirmations, I may not have made this mistake. So in this chapter, I want to talk about exactly that. I want you to have a very solid foundation and understanding of how affirmations work, so that you are able get the most out of affirmations as possible.

  I’m going to go back to that Earl Nightingale quote I referred to in the introduction: “We become what we think about”.

  That pretty much sums it up. I am going to try and explain this concept as much as I can in this chapter, but I highly, highly recommend you listen to his speech on this entitled “The Strangest Secret”.

  It is very, very powerful. I’ve probably listened to it at least 20 times. Like any success principle, it’s so simple, and yet so profound. I’ve linked it below for your convenience.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFhkdzj-x80

  Again, I highly recommend you listen to the above speech. But essentially, Earl is talking about the one principle he believes separates successful people and unsuccessful people- and that’s goals.

  He talks about the fact that all successful people succeed because of goals. When someone succeeds, it is simply because they’ve planted their goal in their heads over and over again, thought about it many times over, and steered their lives towards the achievement of that goal.

  Marcus Aurelius said, “a man’s life is what his thoughts make of it”. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “man is what he thinks about all day long”. Nightingale isn’t the first by any means to talk about this matter.

  Honestly- that’s the principle. It’s really that simple. The only way to succeed is to plant a worthwhile goal in your mind and continually think about it. And I’m not just talking about success as in career in fitness goals, but they could be goals of your emotional or spiritual well being as well. Maybe you have a goal to be confident, have more self-esteem. It doesn’t matter what the goal is- the same principle applies, and it’s so simple. Why is this? How could it be so simple?

  Your mind is a problem solving machine. More powerful than any super-computer ever made- it is capable of so much. The reason we become what we think about is because your mind gets to work on solving that problem the more you think about it- and in this case the problem is your goal.

  If you want a new car, and you continually think about your goal of having that new car, your mind will start to try and come up with different ways of getting that new car. That’s simply how humans work.

  Now let me be clear. Thinking about your goals isn’t enough. It won’t magically bring that new car to your doorstep. But this is the foundation that everything is built on.

  What I mean is that action is what will actually get yo
u results. You can’t just meditate your goals into existence. If you want to achieve anything, you need to actually work towards it.

  However- if you don’t have this foundation of planting a clear and deliberate goal in your brain and constantly thinking about it, your action may not do much. There’s an analogy I like to use to explain this.

  Imagine you get in your car, and you are gonna make a long road trip of 1000 miles or more. You have a long ways to go. You got a lot of driving to do.

  If you want to get to this destination, you absolutely need to put in the work. You’re gonna put a lot of miles on that car. But what happens if you start driving with no idea where the destination is?

  Well I don’t think anyone will have any idea where you will end up. If there is literally no goal, I don’t even know what side of the country you’ll end up on. But even if you do set a clear and deliberate goal of what your destination is- you need to continually check in with this goal and make sure you are on route to reaching this destination.