What you believe about yourself has a huge impact on what you attempt in life. For example, if you’re convinced you can’t do something, you’re not likely to try it. To realize your true potential, you need to replace self-limiting thoughts with more realistic, positive thoughts. And get rid of negative self-talk by using affirmations instead.

Affirmations are positive statements about your ideal self. Reading and repeating them reminds you of what’s possible and motivates you to be at your best. If you say the affirmations often enough, they can change your self-image and create new behavior patterns.

Affirmations work best when stated in the present tense. This creates a vivid picture in your mind of the way you want to be.

For example, if you want to work on the personal strength of SELF-DISCIPLINE, you could repeat statement like:
  “I keep my efforts focused on what’s most important.”
  "I organize my environment to support my success.”

For INITIATIVE…
  “When I take action, I move forward to the result I want.”
  “I do what needs to be done without being told.”

And for COMPASSION…
  “I show a genuine interest in people.”
  “I give the gift of kindness.”

Here are steps you can take to turn affirmations into reality.

1.  Write out or type up the affirmations you want to use, and print out a hard copy.

2.  Read them out loud with feeling at least twice a day.

3.  Visualize yourself doing things that are consistent with these statements.

4.  Continue to do this every day as you work on that personal strength, because repetition is key to rewiring your brain with new thought and behavior patterns.

Monitor your self-talk throughout the day. Every time you criticize yourself, stop and replace those words with one of your affirmations. If you make this a daily practice, you’ll expand your beliefs about your capabilities and achieve more than you ever thought possible.

Our online personal development system, ProStar Coach, includes seven affirmations for 40 different personal strength areas, along with hundreds of other resources for becoming stronger as a person. Check it out and see for yourself what a difference this virtual coaching service can make in your life.

“Our self-image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other.” – Maxwell Maltz, American author(1899-1975)