The Mississippi is supposed to crest near his location this week. I think he and his family and the farm are safe unless there's a levee break. The Army Corps of Engineers is sandbagging the levee north and south of that part of the state so, hopefully, all will be well.
I'm leaving you with interesting posts that will publish during my absence so be sure and check SlingWords every day.
By the way, Just One Look should rack up 5,000 in sales tonight, and my other 2 ebooks, The Trouble With Love and Still The One, are gathering momentum too. Thank you to all who supported me by buying my books. I appreciate each and every one of you.
Now, here's today's post: Create Effective Affirmations.
If you read my previous post on 5 Ways To Change Habits, then you may recall I promised to give you some tips on how to create new self-instruction, you know, those thoughts that bombard you all day long, every day.
Use Affirmations
One of the ways you can change your negative self-instruction is to use affirmations.
A lot of people try to work with affirmations to address a situation that needs to be changed, but, often, they don't understand the science behind how the brain works so they don't create an effective affirmation.
If someone wants to lose weight, he may create an affirmation that states: "I won't eat dessert." That kind of statement will never change anything except maybe increase one's desire for dessert because it doesn't take into account the way the brain works.
Using Brain's Modus Operandi
The brain can not act on a negative. It acts only on a positive. If you tell your brain "don't eat dessert" then the brain "hears" eat dessert. The negative gets removed. You must create affirmations with specific characteristics.
Present Tense
An affirmation is a strong positive thought so construct it in the present tense using positives, not negatives. I make good food choices. I eat for good health. I always choose food wisely, etc.
Guilt-free
Your affirmation should be a strong positive statement that contains no guilt. Not: I make good food choices because I need to lose weight. But: I make good food choices for my good health.
Use Emotions
Add an element of the emotion you want to link to the changed behavior, i.e., "I make good food choices for my good health, and I am happy in the positive changes this brings about.
Review
• pick one thing at a time to change
• carefully craft your affirmation
• write your affirmation on a 3x5 card
• write in a journal about why you want to change the behavior
• think about it throughout the day
• review your affirmation at bedtime
All this is cognitive therapy - using your brain power to recognize habits and behavior that do not serve you well and then taking conscious steps to replace that which doesn't help with something that improves your situation and your life.
Takeaway Truth
Change isn't easy, but it can be achieved if one uses effective tools.
The average order for business cards is for 1000 cards. On average, fewer than 100 cards are used before they become obsolete.
ReplyDeleteMight I suggest using obsolete business cards, instead of 3x5 cards, for your affirmations?
It's obviously cheaper, since the cards would otherwise be discarded.
It's obviously greener, since it doesn't waste trees.
There's plenty of room on the back to write an affirmation. In fact, it helps encourage you to keep your affirmation short and to the point.
They're more convenient to carry around, since they fit nicely in a wallet or credit-card case.
And if you don't have obsolete ones, you can use your current business cards. They would eventually become obsolete.
And by carrying them around, you end up distributing more of your business cards around.
Joan, you mentioned making up postcards showing your e-book cover on one side, description of the book on the other. A business card is even better for this. Toss one in the fishbowl to win a free lunch. Leave one on the table when you leave your tip.
Put a couple up on every bulletin board you see, too; business cards are more readily tolerated there than 3x5 cards are.
If you get into the habit of leaving your business cards no matter where you go, you benefit a little from the advertising the cards do, and benefit a lot from reminding yourself to constantly be marketing yourself and your product.
And if your book cover shows the top of your shapely legs, you probably would get a few interesting phone calls. People who want you to talk to their group - or people who just want to talk, I suppose. Is that true, Joan?
Harl, good comments. Checking in real quick where I found WiFi so can't tackle your remark about the shapely legs. Actually, don't think I'd touch that remark with a 10-foot pole.
ReplyDeleteJoan