Can positive affirmations change your life? You bet! Here are some tips and tricks.
I’ve talked before about why a morning routine is such an important step to getting your life on track, and keeping it there! A lot of people hear the term ‘morning routine’ and think it means a list of things you do first thing in the morning. Wake up, smell the coffee, take a shower, that sort of thing. While those are important, the kind of morning routine I am talking about is a list of positive affirmations and goals that will make an incredibly vast difference in your life.
So what exactly is a morning routine, how do you do it, and how does it work?
Let me answer those questions one at a time:
What Is A Morning Routine?
A morning routine is a list of value aligned goals and positive affirmations that directly counterbalance some of the fears, negative thoughts and bad habits you have.
How Do I Do a Morning Routine?
Well I’ll go into more detail about that further down, but the simple answer is only three steps. 1. You identify your goals, and the fears, negative thought patterns, and bad habits that are holding you back. 2. You record yourself affirming your goals, counterbalancing your fears, negative thoughts, and bad habits. And 3. You listen to this recording every morning, the moment you wake up.
How Does It Work?
Our brains are incredible machines, proliferating whatever fuel we feed them. If we feed our brains negative thoughts and self-defeating sentences, that is precisely what our brains will proliferate. If we feed our brains positivity, and the goals we wish to accomplish, and we truly work to achieve those goals, we’ll be amazed at how much effort goes on behind the scenes to make things happen in the real world. There’s a really great article here on Medium by Kate Maria Pennell, all about this!
I’m not trying to be some kind of “all you must do is want it enough, and you will have all the wealth you can imagine” type of person. That’s precisely why I made sure to mention our need to work towards our goals. But if you’re like me you may have noticed a trend in your prior life when it came to setting and achieving goals. Mine usually went like this:
Step 1: Set a goal.
Step 2: Get really excited about how my life will change.
Step 3: Work on my goal for a few days.
Step 4: … … …
Step 5: Wonder why my life hasn’t changed yet, and go back to doing things the way I did before.
Why did I give up? Why did I do Step 4, (which, if you’re wondering, entailed wandering around, continuously thinking, “I should work on my goal sometime,” and not ever working on my goal.) Why was I so terribly unable to achieve something that I actually, deep down, really, really wanted?
Mostly for me, the reason was because I forgot. I got distracted. I lost track of how important the goal was, and what a difference it would make in my life. In short, I forgot Step 2.
And that, my friend, is where a morning routine comes in.
Every morning — the very moment you wake up — you are reminding yourself what your goal is, but not only that, you are reminding yourself how you feel about your goal, how your goal will change your life. You are combating the fears, negative thoughts, and bad habits that are getting in the way of your goal. You are taking that amazing brain of yours and saying, “Please proliferate these good things in my life.” And then you are getting out of bed and doing the things you need to do.
Stop Telling Me How Amazing It Is. Tell Me How To DO It!
Okay. Here’s what you do. You must identify your core values. Why is this important? Because if you want to set a goal, but your goal doesn’t align with who you believe you are deep inside, you will never be able to achieve that goal or, if you do, you won’t feel good about it.
For example, if your goal is to run a dog rescue shelter, but at your core, you really don’t like dogs, be honest with yourself, how hard are you going to work to achieve it? Dog rescue shelters are important, and the people who run them deserve a lot of applause and admiration. But if you’re wanting to run a dog shelter for applause and admiration, when you don’t really like dogs, your goal is simply not aligned with your values.
Do a Little Legwork to Identify Your Values and Create Related Goals
Take the following steps to identify what it is that you really want to achieve.
- Write down what is most important to you in life. What do you value?
- Rank these values from most important to least important.
- Write down specific goals for each of your listed values.
- Break down any of these goals into smaller ones if needed.
For example, if one of your top values is to have financial stability, then maybe a specific goal for that value would be that you want to get out of debt. You might even break this goal down by the individual debts you have incurred, working on paying off one debt first and then the next.
Create Your Goals AND Attach Emotions to Them
Your next step is to write down your value aligned goals, and to attach positive emotions to them. This should be done in the present tense.
An example of this could be something like:
“I have zero debt, and this makes me feel financially secure and worry free.”
Connecting goals with your values and associating them with positive emotions can have an impact on whether or not you achieve them. And when you imagine your goals, attach emotions to them, and say them in the present tense, it actually tricks your brain into thinking it has already happened. New neurons fire, and new pathways are established in your brain that make succeeding easier! Also, the part of your brain that identifies patterns is activated, so when you repeatedly say your goals this way, you will notice opportunities in the world that will help you reach your goals, that you might not have seen before.
Identify The Fears, Negative Thoughts, and Bad Habits That Are Getting In Your Way
Write down a few things to identify what is standing in your way.
- What are your fears?
- What would the opposite version of your fear look like?
- What are your negative thoughts?
- What would be a positive thought that is opposite of the previous?
- What are the bad habits that stop you from progressing?
- What can you do to avoid those habits, or prevent them?
Once you have written down all the negative things, and their opposites, write affirmations that directly oppose your fears, negative thoughts, and bad habits.
An example of this could be that perhaps one of your fears is that there isn’t enough money in the world. You have a scarcity mindset. The opposite version of that fear would be that there is enough money in the world. The final step of writing an affirmation that directly opposes this fear could look something like this:
“I know there is plenty of money in this world, and I am creating opportunities to make more. I am excited for money to come into my life in a healthy way.”
Don’t forget the last step. After you have identified all of your value aligned goals, have identified and written affirmations that oppose the things that are standing in your way, there’s one thing left to do.
Record Your Value Aligned Goals and Positive Affirmations
There are plenty of easy ways to record your voice. I went with Audacity, which is an open-source program that is free to use. Find something that works for you and record yourself speaking your goals and affirmations out loud. You can record this over relaxing music, such as isochronic tones, which can help you get into a meditative state.
I actually made a little video with inspirational pictures of the things that were important to me, and uploaded the video as a private link on YouTube.
Listen to your morning routine at least every morning. Feel each of the emotions you list in your goals and affirmations. Imagine who you will be when you start achieving your goals, and focus on what you want, not on obstacles.
Having detailed goals can help you see a very clear path that you want to take, and it will also help you know when you have reached your destination. Feel free to revisit your goals frequently, and make a new recording when you feel like your goals are getting stagnant, or you feel like you’ve achieved them and moved beyond them.
Take Action Now
So do it right now. Open up a text document on your phone or computer, and start writing! Identify your values, write down your goals, identify the obstacles that are standing in your way, write down their opposites, and create value aligned goals with emotions attached to them, and positive affirmations.
And then take a moment to record them, and listen every morning. You can listen before bed as well, and any time you are feeling the fear and negativity nagging at you, and telling you to repeat step 4 of your original goal setting. Which was, if you may recall: … … …
Having a morning routine will keep your goals fresh in your mind, and keep your brain working on how to make it easier for you to achieve them. You’ll find patterns and opportunities that you haven’t seen before. Go get ’em, Tiger. You got this!
