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)

You have the potential to accomplish some really important things during your life. But will you do them? Most people barely scratch the surface of what they’re capable of.

There are many reasons for this. A big one that holds back a lot of folks is a lack of self-confidence. Somehow we get it in our heads that what we have to offer isn’t that valuable. We minimize our talents, our gifts and our capabilities. Maybe as you were growing up, people who were important to you – your parents, teachers, coaches and even friends – gave you more criticism about what you did wrong than praise for what you did right. With this kind of ongoing negative input, it’s hard to develop strong self-esteem. And low self-esteem has a huge impact on your confidence level.

When you lack strong self-esteem and self-confidence, here’s what happens. No matter how well you do something or what successes you achieve, that inner critic is constantly chattering in the background, finding fault with what you’ve done.

What you have to do first is STOP the negative self-talk. Start paying attention to all those things you do well. And give yourself your own gold stars, as one of my mentors, Dan Kennedy likes to say. As you make deposits in your own emotional bank account, you’ll start feeling more sure of yourself. You’ll realize that you can do more than you thought you could.

And the opinions of others will matter less to you.

Then at the end of each day, maybe right before you go to sleep, take time to do two things:

1 – Reflect on the things you accomplished or did well that day, no matter how small. It’s important to acknowledge and give yourself credit for these. Think about what you’re grateful for, to put yourself in a positive state of mind.

2 – Visualize in great detail something you intensely want to do, have or be. Let yourself experience all the positive feelings you’ll have when this happens.

If you do that EVERY day, you’ll start taking on new and different challenges. You’ll say YES more often to opportunities that come your way. Each time you stretch and experience a success, your belief system expands. When that happens, your self-confidence grows and now you’re set up to accomplish the really big things that you were meant to do.

“Confidence is the most important single factor in this game, and no matter how great your natural talent, there is only one way to obtain and sustain it: WORK” – Jack Nicklaus, American professional golfer (1940- ) 

“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan, American professional basketball player (1963- ) 

“Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do.” – Mary Kay Ash, American business leader (1918-2001)

Self-confidence has a huge impact on what you achieve in life. That’s because it influences the way you think about yourself and what you’re capable of. Find out specific things you can do every day to get rid of negative self-talk and set yourself up for greater confidence.



What strategies have helped you strengthen your confidence and achieve more than you first thought you could?

“If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.” - Thomas Edison, American inventor

“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” - Henry Van Dyke, American educator

“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.” - Samuel Johnson, British essayist

“There isn’t a person anywhere who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can.” - Henry Ford, American business leader