Affirm Your Intentions - Achieve Your Goals

Affirmations are emotionally driven statements of intention and faith that guide thought and action. Affirmation comes from the Latin firmus, meaning strong. Affirmations recognize and assert the existence of personal truths. These statements can be powerfully effective for developing and strengthening thought patterns, and thus actions, needed to achieve goals. These thought patterns also attract the situations we affirm to be true.

Use Affirmations Effectively

Affirmations are effective when combined with strong emotions and vivid sensory imagery: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Effective affirmations state, in present tense, what we want. At the same time, we are feeling the joy, satisfaction, and gratitude we would feel if each statement had already manifested.

Recall Vivid Imagery and Strong Emotion

An effective way to create mind imagery and emotion is to recall a situation in your life when you actually felt the emotion you want to create. Recall situations that made you feel joyful, loving, forgiving, excited, happy, accepting, successful, and grateful.

This is the same way emotions surface when we dwell on memories that bring tears, upset, or nostalgic feelings. When using affirmations, you get to select purposely the emotions you want. Let these emotions surface and permeate your mind and body.

Practice Positive Affirmations

Belief, imagery, and emotion are essential elements in effective affirmations. With practice, you will be able to create vivid images and emotions very quickly. It might also be helpful to begin by affirming the action you are now taking, as in the exercise below.

Here are seventeen sample affirmations for strengthening goal achievement, creativity, confidence and abundance. Practice the affirmations while combining them with compelling imagery and strong emotion.

I reflect on successful experiences, and I let the memories and moments linger.

I enjoy expressing myself freely, confidently, and creatively.

I am grateful for the success and satisfaction that my purpose is bringing to me.

I provide value to those I serve, and I am becoming more abundant each day.

I welcome challenges and changes in my life, and I feel grateful that each change brings new blessings.

I see my goal clearly, and allow myself to receive it with gratitude.

I forgive myself and others, release the past, and move forward with love and confidence.

I am resilient, capable, confident, lovable, and loving.

I allow joy to flow through me, and I rejoice in my self-expression and creativity.

I feel the joy in small accomplishments each day, and I allow myself to be thankful, loving, and peaceful.

I deserve success, am enthusiastic about life, and create my life the way I want it to be.

I allow energy, vitality, adventure, and passion for my purpose to fill my life.

I allow abundance into my life through my actions, gestures, and words, and I receive all that I need.

I accept Divine guidance, and I feel safe, secure, hopeful, and protected by Divine Love.

I celebrate life's peaks and valleys, knowing that every situation provides a lesson I must learn.

I allow every experience to make me stronger, wiser, more capable, more abundant, and more loving.

I savor small victories along the path to my goals, and I reflect deeply on each experience.

Affirm Only Your Intentions

Each day, our minds fill unconsciously with self-talk, echoing thought patterns and beliefs formed during early development. These might be positive and supportive thoughts. However, our internal speech can also attract the very situations and feelings we would rather avoid.

Negative, distracting thoughts are actually affirmations working against us. By becoming aware of these negative affirmations, we can replace them immediately with positive affirmations that focus on what we want.

Create Your Personal Affirmations

After practicing with the affirmations above, create your own affirmations based on what you want to achieve. It will not help to simply repeat a list of someone else's affirmations that you don't actually believe. You must own each affirmation as a personal declaration of your intention and faith.

Act on Your Affirmations

Spend time each day with your personal affirmations. Then take actions that will lead to their realization. When charged with belief, vivid imagery, and strong emotion, affirmations can be effective and supportive tools that help you move toward the achievements that you desire.

© Copyright 2005 by Steve Brunkhorst. Steve is a professional life success coach, motivational author, and the editor of Achieve! 60-Second Nuggets of Inspiration, a popular mini-zine bringing great stories, motivational nuggets, and inspiring thoughts to help you achieve more in your career and personal life. Get the next issue by visiting http://www.AchieveEzine.com

---

Be Successful : Take Back Control of Your Life

What would happen if you lived your life by design... Read More

Failure IS an option.

I wrote an article on this very subject, with the... Read More

Creating A Life You Love

Imagine that right now, right here, today? there is within... Read More

The Power Of Language: How To Language Your Future

Imagine living in the world that Helen Keller found herself... Read More

Hispanicus Economicus

Something's missing! As a Hispanic in this great country, I... Read More

The Psychology Of Success; Part 2

In the first part of this article you learned some... Read More

You are the President of Your Own Nation

Congratulations! You are the president of your own nation, and... Read More

Success Takes Practice

As a speaker and trainer, people often approach me after... Read More

Patient Persistence Pays Off in a Big Way!

Energy and persistence conquer all things. - Benjamin FranklinThough Ben... Read More

Blessing The Money You Spend

A young girl opens a birthday card from her grand... Read More

Create Credibility for Success

Back in my early marketing days, finding the magic ticket... Read More

Reach Your Goals - Create A Nurturing Environment

Create an environment that is so inspiring and nurturing that... Read More

Today I Choose

Here is a great way to create affirmations that may... Read More

Price of Success

We're all adults, and most of us probably like to... Read More

Achieve the Success You Want: 7 Reasons Why People Dont

Change is one of the biggest concepts facing today's society.... Read More

Personal Excellence: Whats Your Motivation? (Part 3 of 3)

After 13 years of being married to the same woman... Read More

Handling Rejection

Everybody suffers rejection at some time or another in their... Read More

Purpose in Amsall?s Success Mindset Tripod

Here are the 3 elements of the "Purpose" leg in... Read More

iPod - The Ultimate Self-Help Tool

Wow, what an outrageous claim! Why do I say this?... Read More

The 2-Word Phrase That Conquers Adversity and Breaks Through Obstacles

"All the adversity I've had in my life, all my... Read More

5 Ways To SuperSize Your Life

McDonald's does it, why shouldn't you? Life is filled with... Read More

10 Principles of Success

How do we define success? Webster's dictionary defines success as... Read More

High Energy Performance

One of the hallmarks of all successful and high achieving... Read More

If Youre Not Ready - Dont Start!

There are times when we feel we should take action,... Read More

How to Always Get Whatever You Want

Do You Know You Have the Power to Harness Huge,... Read More

Creating Your Own Success Support System

People who are on the same journey tend to band... Read More

Do You Deserve Success?

Deep down, where it counts, many people do not believe... Read More

Techniques to Help e-Learning

e-Learning is doubling yearly. Classes, e-courses, e-books on how-to and... Read More

More Effective Communication - Weight Loss For Your Mouth

Language constitutes our belief system. What we believe is true... Read More

Posture Yourself for a Promotion

Sit up straight! You may recall hearing those words as... Read More

Education Leads To A Healthier And Happier Life

Do you feel you lead a healthy and happy life?... Read More

More and More and More and More

About six years ago I began to study tai chi.... Read More

Have You Given Away Your Power?

Does your life feel less than fulfilling? Are you waiting... Read More