“The pathway from "understanding something" to "doing it automatically" runs through experience, through uncomfortable repetition, through failing and recovering, through showing up when you don’t want to and seeing that you can.” - Ep 20.
Reflection:
Most people think affirmations are about repeating positive statements and hoping their lives change but affirmations aren't magic and they aren't a replacement for hard work. They're a tool for reinforcing the identity you're trying to build, so the real question here is: are you using affirmations to feel better for a few minutes or are you using them to become someone different?
Your identity shapes your behavior, think about the story you tell yourself. Maybe you've said "I'm bad at following through" or "I always quit." When you repeat those statements enough they can become the story you expect to be true and when things get difficult your behavior may follow that familiar pattern. That's why changing your identity matters. So instead of saying "I will become disciplined someday," try: "I am someone who keeps promises to himself." You're choosing the identity first before the evidence is fully in and then building the evidence.
Four Must Have's to Make An Affirmation Work:
1. Specificity: Make your affirmation about a real behavior you want to build. "I am confident" is vague "I am someone who shows up for himself, especially when it's inconvenient" gives you something concrete to practice.
2. Present Tense: Speak to the identity you're building now rather than pushing it into the future.
3. Emotion: Your affirmation should mean something to you. Say it when you've made a difficult decision or followed through on something that mattered.
4. Action: This is the most important part, words alone aren't enough, you have to back them up with action.
Your actions are the evidence. If you say you're someone who follows through then follow through on something small. Train when you said you would. Complete the task you promised yourself. Make the right decision when nobody is watching. Those actions become evidence of the person you're becoming. You don't need to change everything overnight, you need to repeat the right decisions long enough for them to become familiar. The boring, repetitive daily decisions are often the ones that accumulate you into a different person which we have talked about on here before about the "boring Tuesdays".
Stop Consuming and start becoming. You can listen to every podcast about discipline and read every book about habits but information alone won't make you consistent. The brain learns through experience, repetition and action. You don't become disciplined by knowing more about discipline, you become disciplined by practicing it when you don't feel like it. So, if you're consuming a lot and changing a little the answer may not be more information... it may be less consumption and more action. So pick one thing, do it consistently and attach an affirmation that reinforces who you're becoming every time you do it.
⚔️ Weekly Challenge
Choose one affirmation that represents your new identity and then ask yourself this questions:
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Who am I right now?
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Who am I trying to become?
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What would that person do consistently?
Then create one affirmation that describes the person you're becoming.
For example:"I am someone who builds things that last." Repeat it with intention, then take one action every day that reinforces it. Remember, the goal isn't to feel like a completely different person overnight. The goal is to start collecting evidence that you can trust yourself.
You become who you repeatedly choose to be so decide who you're becoming. Speak to that identity. Then act like it one decision at a time.
⚔️ Step into the Forge. Listen, reflect and grow.
Affirmations aren’t magic and they aren’t a substitute for action. They’re a tool for changing the story you repeatedly tell yourself and reinforcing it through what you actually do. In Episode 20, I break down how affirmations work, why consuming more mindset content doesn’t necessarily create change and how to turn your words into evidence through aligned action.
The goal isn’t to feel like you’re changing... it’s to actually change.
Ready? Step into the Forge. ⚔️ Hit play on YouTube below or listen on Spotify.
MindForge Podcast Episode 20 Link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5aucKQZo4YGXr8ioTi3elQ
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