As you go through life, you’re constantly affirming your own thoughts and beliefs. Throughout each day, you consciously and unconsciously tell yourself things based on your belief system.

The problem is, much of the time you may actually be re-affirming negative thoughts rather than positive ones. This is bad news. After all, if your affirmations are negative, you can expect only negative outcomes!

How many times in a day do you tell yourself how stupid you are for forgetting something or how fat you are when your favorite jeans feel tight?

Negative thinking reinforces an internal belief that we’ll never be able to change ourselves and that we’re destined to continue repeating our self-destructive behaviors. When we re-affirm our negative thoughts, we enter into a vicious cycle that leads to even more negative thinking.

Imagine how different your life would be if you began using affirmations to reinforce the positive!

Affirmations work wonders if you use them properly. By making a few simple adjustments in the way you phrase your inner dialog, you can begin using this powerful technique to change your thinking and change your life.

Your subconscious mind accepts things on a very literal basis, so for affirmations to work effectively, you need to follow a simple formula.

Follow these tips to create positive affirmations that can change your life for the better:

1. Your subconscious needs to know you’re doing something now, not in the future. For example, if you state an affirmation as something you want to change, such as “I will quit smoking,” your subconscious cannot distinguish what you mean by “I will.”


It has no sense of planning for the future. In fact, your subconscious mind will accept what you tell it, even if the behavior has not yet happened, that’s why you should state your affirmation as if it’s already a fact.


* “I am free from the desire to smoke” is an effective affirmation and will begin to program your subconscious mind into thinking as a non-smoker, even before you put down the cigarettes.


2. An affirmation must be personal for your subconscious to accept it. Saying, “You need to eat healthy” won’t help you change your diet. When your subconscious hears the word “you,” it doesn’t interpret it as a statement directed at yourself.


Instead, phrase your affirmation in the first person. Stick to “I” in your affirmations and you’ll soon notice a strong positive effect on your behaviors.


* “I enjoy eating healthy foods” is a positive, first person affirmation that will help you begin making better choices when you reach for a meal or snack.


3. Your subconscious mind is very literal. It can’t process the concept of “not.” The statement, “I am not going to lie on the couch watching TV when I should be exercising” won’t do anything other than re-affirm how you should lay on the couch in front of the television.


Form your intention in a positive way, even if you haven’t made the behavior change yet.


* “I enjoy exercising in my spare time” is more likely to motivate you to get up and go to the gym, instead of reaching for the remote control and a bag of chips.


Positive, personal, present tense affirmations are extremely powerful in changing how your subconscious affects your behavior.


Make an effort to stop reinforcing your old, negative thinking that keeps you caught in a rut. Try using these three simple techniques today to create affirmations that can change your subconscious programming, your actions, and your life for the better.

Why wait until Thanksgiving to express your gratitude? You have the luxury of living your joyous life every single day of the year. So make it a point to recognize your blessings and remind yourself that showing gratitude for all you already have only does more to attract further blessings into your life.

Here are five ways that showing gratitude attracts more abundance into your life:

1. You’ll be thankful for the little things. When you’re in a positive mindset, you’ll learn to appreciate the little things. The sweetest blessings come in the smallest forms. Once you learn to love, recognize, and be thankful for the little things in life, your quality of life will increase because you’ll be aware of how fortunate you really are.

* Your daughter giving you a drawing that says, “Number one mom!” or your husband picking up your favorite flavor of ice cream are things that you should be thankful for. Your daughter thinks you’re a rock star and you have a considerate spouse. How awesome!

2. You’ll develop impeccable radar. If you often reflect on the fortunate events in your life, you’ll be able to spot a good opportunity a mile away. For example, you’ll be able to smell a promotion in the works or an opportunity to bring your family closer.

* Actively seeking new opportunities to increase your personal quality of life and that of the ones nearest and dearest to your heart will fill your heart with accomplishment.

3. Giving to the less fortunate. When you’re thankful for the bed you sleep in at night, the roof shielding your family from the cold, the family on your couch and the food on your plates, you’re well aware of how fortunate you are. As a result, you’re more likely to jump at the opportunity to help someone in a worse position.

* The smallest efforts from you could make a world of a difference in the life of another. Helping your neighbor craft his resume will help him provide for his family. Donating your used clothing will help keep the homeless warm. And taking part in a walk for breast cancer may give someone else the opportunity to live another day.


* When you help others, you help yourself in many ways.

4. You’ll reach higher. Your grateful ways are a blessing. You appreciate life more intensely when you’re grateful. You also see each day as another chance to bring more joy to your reality, lifestyle, and future.

* It’s perfectly normal to be grateful for what you have, yet often desire to reach for more. Constantly improving your life is a good thing for you and your family.

5. Taking others into consideration. When you’re satisfied with your life and feel genuinely happy, you tend to treat others very kindly. You’ll be more likely to hold the door open at the mall for a stranger or pick up a fallen cane for an elderly man. Your own happiness is magnified when you help bring joy to others.

Your life begins to take a turn for the better when you keep in mind how fortunate you really are. The smallest details can boost your spirits. The misfortune of others will prompt you to help them seek support, and life just begins to look a little brighter.

Starting today, take your positive mindset to new heights and make every day a personal day of thanksgiving!

Many people don’t realize that strategies for building wealth actually requires you to build up your life mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and financially. The words “health” and “wealth” actually come from the same root, which means “wholeness” in the sense of being complete. When we do things to make our lives wealthier, we should also be doing things to make our lives healthier.

Surely, to attract wealth we have to be in business in some way, shape, or form. If we aren’t doing some kind of work, we aren’t attracting wealth.

Attract Wealth by Working

It’s necessary to do some sort of work in order to attract wealth. This is even true of those who are financially independent. Granted, financially wealthy people don’t need to work on anybody else’s clock, but don’t be fooled, they’re still overseeing to ensure that work gets done.

Also remember that people don’t get wealthy overnight. Yes, there are your lucky lottery winners who wake up rich after buying a single ticket, but more often than not, wealth is earned by hard work. Patience is just as important as charting your progress toward wealth. If your current job isn’t meeting your needs to reaching financial freedom, then take action and look for a job that will pay you more.

Attract Wealth Spiritually

Wealth is energy, and energy by its nature must flow. The independently wealthy people who keep money working for them are creating, maintaining, and growing an energy flow, and that is a spiritual endeavor. Another spiritual principle for wealth creation that is widely recognized amongst those who are financially successful is tithing, which isn’t necessarily tied to any religion.

Tithing is a principle that instructs a person to give away at least 10% of his money whether it’s weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually to noble causes that have nothing to do with seeking profit. These causes are supposed to be things such as charities and philanthropic projects.

Those who are financially successful say that what you give away returns to you in greater measure. So when they do noble things with their money, they not only benefit others, but they benefit themselves, because that spiritual energy returns to them and brings them even more wealth than they give out. It’s an endless and beneficial cycle.

Take a look around your neighborhood for non-profit causes to support. Local schools, libraries, places of worship, park and recreation departments, or children’s organizations are all deserving of your support.

Attract Wealth with Positive Thinking

Mentally, we attract wealth by creating a positive mental state where we fully understand and believe that we deserve to be wealthy. Once we have created this positive image in our minds, we must have a clear vision of what our lives will be like when we are wealthy. What will we be doing with our time? Where will we live? What things will we do? What will we give to others?

Emotionally, we create within ourselves an attitude of gratitude. Having an attitude of gratitude (even for wealth that we don’t actually have yet) charges up our wealth attraction magnet and helps to bring about that which we know is coming to us.

Every self-help guru on the planet will tell you that the way to experience happiness, prosperity, and health is through the doorway of positive thinking. And while that’s easy to talk about when all is going great in your life, it may not be much comfort to you if things are crashing and burning all around you.

But the self-help gurus are right about the power of positive thinking. You can begin to take control of your thoughts and guide them in the direction you want your life to go. Your thoughts are the driving force toward your destiny.

Use these simple strategies to head toward the happiness you crave:

1. Smile and be thankful. Much of what you experience in life depends on what you pay attention to. Each day, some things will go right and some things will go wrong. If you pay more attention to the things that go right and dwell on those things, you’ll experience more happiness.

* Smile and greet everyone you meet warmly. Smiles are contagious, and you’ll instantly begin to feel a difference inside yourself.

* Pause throughout the day to think about things that you are grateful for. The more you practice gratitude, the better you’ll feel about life and about yourself.

2. Surround yourself with positive people. Most people who soar to incredible heights of accomplishment in their lives do so because they surround themselves with positive, encouraging people. It’s hard to have a positive outlook when everyone around you is complaining all the time.

* If you surround yourself with people who routinely seek the good inside of you, you’ll begin to do the same. Spend less time with negative people and more time with those who speak words of support into your life. If you do, you’ll experience greater power, self-confidence and joy.

3. Think constructively. For positive thinking to truly make a difference in your life, you must replace negative thoughts as they occur. Most important, however, is the need to get whatever benefits you can out of the negative thought before you erase it from your mind.

* Instead of ignoring your negative thought and hoping it will go away, ask yourself if the critic inside of you is trying to teach you something valuable. Take note of the lesson, and then quickly discard the negative thought. Replace it with a positive perspective on the same situation.

* Whenever you experience negative thinking, ask yourself: “What else could this mean?” If someone treats you unfairly, it could mean that they don’t like you very much. But it probably means they’re just having a bad day. How can you help? Do you see how this question can change your entire outlook?

4. Use positive affirmations. Often, when faced with a stressful situation, we resort to a pattern of thinking and behaving that has become a habit. How do you create new habits that support your success instead of sabotaging it? Positive affirmations are the key.

* Write out the things you want in life and the qualities you want to possess. Write these statements in the present tense, and use positive language. Repeat these statements to yourself over and over again. Do this every day, and before long you’ll strongly believe the words of the affirmation you’ve created for yourself.

* If a habit of thinking is holding you back, what’s stopping you from creating a new habit? Try this today and experience its power for yourself.

The negative thoughts of the critic inside of you serve a valuable purpose. Things aren’t always rosy, and it’s important to learn from your experiences so that you don’t make the same mistakes. However, you can begin to harness the power of positive thinking today. Apply these simple strategies to move closer to the joy and success you deserve.

When you think of excellence, who’s the first person that comes to mind? Is it you? If not, why not? Perhaps you need to change how you view yourself! We all should view ourselves as excellent people.

You should start each day expecting only the best from yourself. You can do this by putting your best foot forward and being the best you can be in every part of your life.
Practicing being your best each day can soon turn into a rewarding habit!

If you feel that striving for excellence is a lot of work, you’ll be delighted to discover that you can use techniques to seamlessly integrate the process into your everyday life.

Discovering the excellence within you can be easier than you have ever imagined.

Overcoming Self Doubt

Many of us doubt ourselves too much. To find out if doubt is stalling your search for excellence, think about these questions:

* Do you find yourself doubting whether or not you can live up to your own or other people’s expectations?

* When you have the opportunity to do great things, does something stop you from following through?

* Does your negative internal dialogue keep you from enjoying your successes?

If you are nodding your head and answering “Yes” to these questions, using affirmations can silence the doubt and give you the confidence to embrace excellence.

How Can Affirmations Help?

Affirmations are simple statements that prompt you to move forward and embrace behaviors or attitudes you desire.

For example, affirmations for success allow you to reprogram the way you think about success, and particularly how you relate to success. Success affirmations let you replace self-doubt with statements like, “I see each success throughout my journey,” or “I am on the path to great success.”

* When you learn to use affirmations, finding success can be as simple as saying, “I am already a winner!”

Many people who use affirmations for success consider these statements to be self-fulfilling prophecies. You are reaffirming the phrase and making it real every time you say it aloud.

Even if you’re too hard on yourself because you’re a perfectionist, or if you simply don’t believe in yourself, you can teach yourself to see excellence in everything you do.

The great thing about this mind reprogramming is that it doesn’t have to cost money. Many people buy books and pay counselors to change their lives, but success still eludes them. Then they blame the books and counselors for bad advice. But do you know the real reason why things stay the same for them?

Their life doesn’t change because they don’t affirm what’s being taught. Their thought processes don’t change and therefore their views of life and self don’t change.

* If you truly want to change your life, affirmations are your key to unlocking your excellence.

The Affirmation Process

How do you use affirmations to change your life? Follow these steps:

1. Obtain a list of affirmations.
2. Choose the ones that speak to your heart the most.
3. Repeat them aloud at least three times a day and more often if possible.
4. Apply them to your life every day.

You can reaffirm these statements when you are in search of excellence, for a boost of confidence, or to give you the courage to take the right actions for your success.

Remind yourself that you are a source of excellence and you don’t need to find it elsewhere. You have the potential to do great things!