After working with gratitude last week, I thought that it would be a good idea to start tackling one difficult area in your creative life. I’m tackling procrastination. I guess that that’s no surprise. I completed some work last week, that had been on my goal list for at least two weeks. I have a long job that needs to be broken down into segments. What I want to do, ideally, is work on a segment a day until Friday and work two shorter sessions over the weekend. I waited too long to start this work last weekend, so I made weak start on it. Using affirmations helps me keep focused and not let my thoughts run away with me and distract me from completing a segment each day. While I’m working I repeat one over and over again in my mind. I figured that it’s a bit like painting. The more I repeat the affirmation the more chances it has of staying in my mind and memory, just like painting one spot over and over again until the primary coat is finished.

I will be posting some reminder questions and a gratitude break, so watch out for those postings this week.

Have a creative week!

Create Your Own Affirmations

By
Lael Johnson

Whether you are preparing for a final interview, first performance, first gallery hanging or starting a regular day, affirmations can really be helpful. Usually people practice saying affirmations out loud. It’s very helpful to express your affirmations by verbalizing them, listening to them and watching yourself as you speak them in front of a mirror. Each time that you express them, you give yourself more time to absorb what they say about you.

However, before you can verbalize your affirmations, you have to create them. You can find them in books, ask for some ideas from your friends, create them yourself or use a combination of techniques to write them.

FIRST: Start your affirmations with the phrase “I am________.” The idea is to keep your focus in the present and to keep them positive. When you use the phrase” I am__” you are starting the process of acting as if the affirmation is already part of your life.

SECOND: Choose one action that you want to complete. Do you want to meet five referral sources during a meeting? Do you want to complete six telenetworking calls next week? I’m sure that you can think of some other actions that fit with your business. Choose an action that is a currently a challenge for you to complete.

THIRD: Write out your complete affirmation. Read your affirmation out loud. Listen to it and see if it reads like an action that you want to complete.

FOURTH: Stand in front of a mirror. Repeat the affirmation ten times, while looking at yourself in the mirror. Remember to repeat this affirmation once a day for thirty days.

FIFTH: Be expectant. Don’t scan every moment of your life looking for signs of change. Stay focused on learning your affirmations. You will keep yourself very busy building new thinking habits while you are changing internally. Any external changes will follow your internal changes naturally.

I’ve included a list of affirmations, ready for use, until you have created some of your own. Feel free to use them as catalysts for writing your own affirmations or use them just as they are.

Remember to practice, practice and practice your affirmations every day.

Here is the list:

1) I am writing my dreams daily.

2) I am filling my journal with valuable information.

3) I am expressing my feelings in a safe place.

4) I am creating a roadmap for my dreams.

5) I am making myself heard during important conversations.

6) I am recording my past memories easily.

7) I am solving important problems daily.

I am sorting out my thoughts freely.

9) I am creating something new daily.

10) I am writing my prayers daily.

Lael Johnson, owner of Writer’s Eye Advisory Service, offers creativity coaching services and additional writing resources.This article may be reprinted as long as the text is unchanged, the resource box is included and the author is notified,placing the title of the article in the subject line.(c) 2005, Lael Johnson Writer’s Eye Advisory Service. All rights reserved.

 

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