Gratitudes and Affirmations

First off – why in the world is “gratitudes” not a word? I’ll be adding it to every dictionary I use for eternity, it feels like.

Okay, now that’s out of the way, here’s what I really came to say.

I’m back with my morning gratitudes and affirmations practice. It’s a good thing. And I say that like it’s a surprise that it’s a good thing, but it’s not a surprise.

Well, kind of it is.

I finally picked an affirmation that’s creating some change in my life.

Maybe a little backstory. (Yes, I’ve brought this up before. Is it still on this blog? I don’t know. Forgive me if you’ve already heard this.)

I did a motivational conference with my workplace. Their spiel was that you should look at all your expenses and what you wanted to do with your money, and set an earning goal as an affirmation. Along the lines of, “I enjoy earning $125,000 with my writing by December 31, 2021“. I use writing as an example. My industry isn’t writing, it’s something else.

Anyway, I went ahead and tried their method, even though I wasn’t working in the industry that did the conference. Workshop? Seminar? Something along those lines. I made my goal completely unrealistic, as we were encouraged to do. No limits. If you could wave a magic wand and have anything you want, like that. So my affirmation was I enjoy earning $937,500 by 12-31-2016.

Oy. Even if I had joined the industry instead of just being industry-adjacent, I couldn’t have met that goal. No amount of high vibrations could have brought that into existence. There isn’t enough positive thinking that could have gotten it done. Even hard work wasn’t going to cut it.

But I wrote it pretty religiously, through several notebooks, daily. Because, you know, that’s what the course asked of us.

That’s been five years ago, now that I think of it. And I don’t remember what I did between then, when I finally stopped the frustrating and defeatist practice of writing a dream that I was never going to achieve, and now.

But I started up again recently. I started hanging out in a Clubhouse room with a bunch of people who have also done the same seminar/course/workshop/conference. One of them is a coach for people who have taken the course and want to progress in the industry in question. And even though that course was so long ago, it really did set me on my personal development journey that has brought me quite a bit of insight and education about myself.

The difference between my affirmation that I chose this time and last time is stark. Instead of setting a money goal (don’t get me wrong – I am still actively financially motivated), I set a habit goal. A habit I want to develop, that will strengthen a weakness I have by putting that habit it into practice.

And to my surprise, it’s working.

Honestly, I don’t think I honestly expected it to. Which is weird, because if you don’t expect an affirmation to work, it won’t work. So why is this working?

It might have something to do with a thing that conference I went to ages ago talked about.

Your non-conscious can’t take a joke.

You can switch out “non-conscious” for “subconscious”. The bottom line here is the theory that what you tell yourself, the part of your brain that isn’t actively helping you live your life you is listening to the things you tell yourself. When you tell yourself that you’re a failure? Non-conscious is listening and helping you behave like a failure. When you tell yourself that you can’t do anything right? Non-conscious is accepting that as truth and helping you screw up.

So the theory is, you tell yourself you can do all the things, and your non-conscious is like, “Okay, mother fudgepacker, let’s do all the goddamn things.”

And honestly, I don’t know that I’ve ever really subscribed to that theory. It sounds like woo-woo crap, doesn’t it? Like magic.

But I picked a new affirmation (I mentioned it in my last post, but I’ll share again):

I use what I have before buying more.

Because I have a shitty habit of buying more things before I’ve used what I have. I buy more notebooks. I buy more books. I buy more whatever when I still have it. Heck, it applies to using things, too. I always have to start a new, fresh notebook when I have an idea for a project instead of using what I have already started – and I start plenty. You would think I live in a damn stationery shop. I don’t need more pens, more anything.

That’s the story. I found an affirmation that is actually having an effect on me in a good way, not driving my mood down. And it’s time for me to pick a new one. This one is working, and I can see it working, and that’s good. Now time to build on it.

I have a small stack of index cards. I’m building it to make it larger, but for the moment, it’s a list of things I need to read every day. Most of it is things to read and set the mood, things like

• I am always working toward healthy
• I am creative beyond measure
• Keep showing up every single time

I need more specific things. Specific habits to change. Small things I can hope to see a result on quickly.

I think I’m going to make it something about cleaning one space every day. Something that will add up over time.

Wish me luck.

What kind of affirmations do you have? Any? Do you feel like they work, or do they feel like a waste of time? I’m interested to hear what you think.