This Christmas, my stepdaughter picked out a special present for me at a thrift store. Some may raise an eyebrow that a gift was found second-hand, but in this house we love thrifting!

The present was a tiny little flip book titled “1001 ways to Confidence.” It’s a tiny 4.25″ x 4.25″ book filled with quotes about confidence. I absolutely love it. She gets me for sure.

It sits right next to my computer where I do all of my writing for this blog. If I need a little inspiration, I flip randomly and usually find some motivation to start putting words down on a blank document. Sometimes, I get an entire article out of it.

What she gifted me wasn’t just another book, it was a tool I need to further my writing career. In fact, it’s furthering my self-development goals as well. You wanna know why? It’s just a book of affirmations baby!

AFFIRMATIONS BABY

I have spoken at length about the importance of affirmations. Now it’s time to dig into them.

I emphatically believe that if I didn’t have my own personal list of affirmations, I would not be the man I am today. I recite them almost every single day. They are in my phone in visual and audio forms. I wrote them out on big poster paper and taped them to the wall in front of my treadmill. When I start my day off with a jog in the morning, they are right there in front of me.

I remember the first time I heard about affirmations and how cringe it seemed to recite them out loud. To the self development beginner I was, it was snake oil. How could speaking phrases out loud have any semblance of change on my life?

Depending on what you think about the chicken and the egg, I am not sure what came first for me; affirmations or the power of positive thinking, but I started committing.

I had just gotten divorced and quit my job, and I didn’t really know where I was going to go from there. I knew I wanted more out of my life, and that I wasn’t going to just crawl into a bottle and die.

The life I wanted wasn’t clear yet, but the life I didn’t want was a clear vision, so I started from there. Eventually, through the self-help world of podcasts, blogs and books, I started jotting down the life I wanted. I reverse-engineered that into finding out what I was lacking in life.

Credit for this journey starts with me wanting to make the changes, but without Blake D Bauer’s “You Were Not Born To Suffer” I wouldn’t be here. In Bauer’s book, I learned that the world was mine for the taking. I was not put here to be akin to Job from the bible. I was put on this earth to thrive and make a difference.

At the end of every chapter, Bauer lists affirmations that you can use to empower yourself. That became my textbook. I’d write down the ones that I needed the most. When I was finished reading the book, I had pages upon pages of affirmations. I wrote them out on white printer paper with a black Sharpie. I love the look of black Sharpie on white paper. I taped the pages to my bedroom wall and recited them every morning. Here’s pictures of all my affirmations from back then.

I moved around a few times after writing these out, but I never threw them away. Some corners fell off with the scotch tape, but the OG copies remain to this day. They are somewhere in storage bins in my basement.

My biggest struggles at that time were lack of self love, lack of confidence, victim mentality, imposter syndrome, and substance abuse. I picked affirmations to fight off these issues.

Trust me, it felt silly to be standing in my room reciting “Thank you for my strong immune system. Thank you for my strong digestive system. Thank you for my strong circulatory system.” But, I can tell you that I barely get sick anymore! (My fiancee will probably ask me to add this affirmation back into my list because of the digestive system component…)

We have already discussed how powerful our thoughts are in a previous article, and if you believe that, you know why affirmations work. It’s all about the law of attraction baby!

If I ever find myself in a funk, or getting easily irritated by something, I have to do a personal inventory. The core of the issue is easy to identify, and the antidote is an affirmation.

Stressed about finances? Find an affirmation that attracts wealth. Recite it and watch the money flow into your bank account.

Finding yourself feeling like you won’t get that promotion you want? Find an affirmation that builds you up and eliminates that imposter syndrome. Recite it, and watch your new office being set up.

You will notice that I have let go of a few of my affirmations. The list of 20 that I currently recite is a much smaller list than the eight pages I used previously. That’s mainly because my life has changed. Some of my old affirmations were focused on finding love. I have that now, so I don’t need to keep looking for it.

Life is ever-changing, and my list of affirmations is catered to the life I am working on manifesting in the moment. If I feel the need to add, then I’ll have you know there are still four pieces of poster paper in my basement just waiting for the black sharpie to stain them!

If you want to see your life change, I know this is a great place to start. Affirmations can come from many places. A quick Google search, Blake D Bauer’s book, something you heard a friend say, or just something you need to hear yourself say.

Wherever and whenever you find them, they are yours.

Write them down.

Recite them every day.

Keep the faith and watch your life change for the better.