Stuart Smalley - Saturday Night Live (Al Franken)
Saturday Night Live’s Stuart Smalley comes to mind whenever I hear the word Affirmations. Silly, nonsensical, comic.
Focus On What You Want To Achieve And The Steps You Must Take To Attain It is a key Happiness Habit.
We think it is critical to focus on your goals AND what you need to do to achieve them.
Repeating Positive affirmations over and over again, saying and pretending that you have already achieved your goals is delusional and counterproductive. This does not emphasize what you actually need to do to attain your goals.
Positive affirmations are very much part of our “The Secret” driven culture. They do everyone a serious disservice.
If you wander around pretending you already have achieved something you have not worked for, it’s easy to get lost in lies.
Here’s a paraphrased example of affirmations from a self help book I recently saw:
- There are two things you must know to reach a goal. First it must be clearly identified and quantified. Second, goals should be written and affirmed as if they already existed.
- To affirm something, you write and / or state it repeatedly, sincerely believing it has already been accomplished.
- Your affirmation might sound something like this: “I have sold five units as of January 30, 2011. Gross income from these sales is $500,000 and net profit is $80,000. I am respected and lead my field in sales production.”
- By expressing your desired outcome in the present tense, you condition your subconscious mind to accept it as fact. This method is taught by most success motivators.
- Write your affirmations several times each morning and evening. Post them on your bathroom mirror, refrigerator, your computer or car dashboard. Refer to them often and repeat them out loud. Believe them!
- By planting this seed of positive expectancy you condition yourself to move toward your goal swiftly and unswervingly.
Does this sound familiar? No where does it describe what you actually must do, or do differently to achieve these goals!
Wishing doesn’t make things real. Repeating affirmations over and over again detaches you from reality. If you truly believe it when you have not achieved it, it is delusional.
So focus on what you what to achieve and the steps you must take to attain it.
Positive affirmations do help you to step into the right mind set to perform and present yourself at your best. A successful salesman I know always says: “Cool, confident, successful and savvy” to himself before he walks into any room to remind himself of how he wants to think of himself and what we wants to project.
This helps him connect with a clear image of the person he wants to be – but it is very different from pretending and telling himself he has already done something he hasn’t worked to attain.
Use affirmations to help you to connect with your best self and then:
Focus On What You Want To Achieve And The Steps You Must Take To Attain It to achieve your dreams.
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Tags: create happiness, create happy life, creating happiness, creating happy life, happiness affirmations, happiness habit, Happiness Quotes, michele moore
Some excellent observations and suggestions.
While I agree that it’s easy to get “lost in lies,” the only time repetitive affirmations don’t work magic is when they’re done improperly.
I agree that “Wishing doesn’t make things real.” But repetitive affirmations don’t necessarily have to detach you from reality. Awareness is a key element and awareness of reality is critical. Only when one ignores reality does such a technique move into the realm of delusion. There is a monstrous difference between “wishing” and “having” (creating).
Faith and humility are much more potent tools, like the faith to walk on water. It’s not an easy state to achieve, but it can, quite literally, work miracles.
I think they are just delusions and delusions do help some people, but for others they do nothing, and yet others delusions make them worse.
My pet peeve is the obnoxious arrogance of those who blame others for not being able to delude themselves.
Great blog, i have ever read….
“Repeating Positive affirmations over and over again, saying and pretending that you have already achieved your goals is delusional and counter-productive. This does not emphasize what you actually need to do to attain your goals.” These lines in this blog touched me.
Thanks for share.