Affirmations and Goal Visualization

[TreyAllDay]

What are your thoughts and experiences on the concept of Affirmations and Goal Visualization in pursuit of your goals? What are some things you try? I am in the middle of documenting my experiences as part of a podcast and would love to have some insight from other entrepreneurs. I agree math is the universal law. IE: quantity sold * revenue will always be what creates wealth. However, using the affirmations, daily goal review, and visualization here are some my results from the first month:

- Grown my monthly subscription revenues about 35% from 10.5k to 13.5 K in 24 days.
- Stayed on my diet 14 days (since I introduced health affirmations/goals) and lost 5 lbs and feel completely different about it - it feels natural.
- Almost completely gave up liquor, videos games, and most tv.

Seems there are two world views on affirmations
1- This isn't anything mystic - it's just habit building. At the end of the day, I sold more subscriptions so earned more and ate less calories so lost weight. Forcing yourself to face your goals daily just makes you work the math better and get to work.

2- I'm currently researching and some experts literally believe your thoughts are energy that will materialise. A little less easy to explain.

 

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[El Príncipe]

Very interesting topic. I would say that achieving certain changes in life require a change in mindset; the way we think and our beliefs.

Growing into a leadership position at work for example. Being a leader requires a very different outlook on life and relationships and groups etc. etc.

It's hard to say which comes first. They're probably mutually reinforcing.

Gratitude journaling has had a positive impact in my experience. Now it's more like abundance journaling. And I often journal writing how I want to choose to see the world. While simultaneously accepting and allowing conflicting thoughts and feelings if they come up. Just acknowledging them and accepting them, without reinforcing them.

 

[TreyAllDay]

Very interesting topic. I would say that achieving certain changes in life require a change in mindset; the way we think and our beliefs.

Growing into a leadership position at work for example. Being a leader requires a very different outlook on life and relationships and groups etc. etc.

It's hard to say which comes first. They're probably mutually reinforcing.

Gratitude journaling has had a positive impact in my experience. Now it's more like abundance journaling. And I often journal writing how I want to choose to see the world. While simultaneously accepting and allowing conflicting thoughts and feelings if they come up. Just acknowledging them and accepting them, without reinforcing them.

Yes - this is an important note too. Mindset changes specifically are likely a large part of it. Heard a take on this recently that humans can only take in a fraction of a percent of the world around them, and changing your mindset will allow you to see opportunities you never would have before, even if they were always there.

Love the idea of gratitude/abundance journaling. Think it is great for your mental health and keeping things in perspective.

 

[AndrewNC]

Once a month I have a ritual where I sit down, I create an inner vision, seeing, hearing, and feeling as if I have my ultimate end goal (lake tahoe dream house, $23.8 million, dream wife, relaxation, achievement). I pay attention to the feelings I would feel as if I already achieved that goal.

I usually only do this when stress or something builds up, or something is going wrong and I need a recharge.

I spend about 20-40 minutes doing an emotional release technique and other mindset work, so at the end of the the session, I literally 100% feel and am convinced that I already have it in my life right now. This is an extra step to release the underlying 'negative' emotions that get in the way of feeling it.

Within 24-48 hours after doing it, something manifests in my life (opportunity, sales, dates, or whatever it is) that is aligned with that vision.

Ideally, I would do this once a week, spending 30 minutes maximum - but most of the time I'm too busy and forget.

Outside of those 30 minutes, the rest of the time is spend living my life outside of the mindset rituals.

In 2013-2014, When I built my portfolio of iPhone apps, I set one goal at the beginning (quit job, live off of passive income, re-live the college life), and then did absolutely zero visualization, and things lined up to make that dream become a reality. But it was a painful struggle with a lot of stress and anxiety. So setting the goal once was enough to achieve it. But doing the process I mentioned above has the same effect, but keeps more focus, and releases the stress and anxiety that normally goes along with business problems.

I also have a belief system that when you set the specific goal of what you do want, follow the opportunities that come your way as if 'the universe' lines up in your favor. It's like choosing a path to walk on, things lining up, and then from there motivation kicks in and you can simply choose to walk it.

I found the best balance for this is 30 minutes per week with the inner-game, and the rest of it being outer-work stuff. When playing with positive emotions, feeling good can get addicting and can build some bad habits in terms of work ethic, so a balance there is key.

That's what works beset for me at least.

 

[TreyAllDay]

Once a month I have a ritual where I sit down, I create an inner vision, seeing, hearing, and feeling as if I have my ultimate end goal (lake tahoe dream house, $23.8 million, dream wife, relaxation, achievement). I pay attention to the feelings I would feel as if I already achieved that goal.

I usually only do this when stress or something builds up, or something is going wrong and I need a recharge.

I spend about 20-40 minutes doing an emotional release technique and other mindset work, so at the end of the the session, I literally 100% feel and am convinced that I already have it in my life right now. This is an extra step to release the underlying 'negative' emotions that get in the way of feeling it.

Within 24-48 hours after doing it, something manifests in my life (opportunity, sales, dates, or whatever it is) that is aligned with that vision.

Ideally, I would do this once a week, spending 30 minutes maximum - but most of the time I'm too busy and forget.

Outside of those 30 minutes, the rest of the time is spend living my life outside of the mindset rituals.

In 2013-2014, When I built my portfolio of iPhone apps, I set one goal at the beginning (quit job, live off of passive income, re-live the college life), and then did absolutely zero visualization, and things lined up to make that dream become a reality. But it was a painful struggle with a lot of stress and anxiety. So setting the goal once was enough to achieve it. But doing the process I mentioned above has the same effect, but keeps more focus, and releases the stress and anxiety that normally goes along with business problems.

I also have a belief system that when you set the specific goal of what you do want, follow the opportunities that come your way as if 'the universe' lines up in your favor. It's like choosing a path to walk on, things lining up, and then from there motivation kicks in and you can simply choose to walk it.

I found the best balance for this is 30 minutes per week with the inner-game, and the rest of it being outer-work stuff. When playing with positive emotions, feeling good can get addicting and can build some bad habits in terms of work ethic, so a balance there is key.

That's what works beset for me at least.

Thanks for sharing this andrew. I whole-heartedly agree and it's very interesting to hear it from someone else!

 

[masterneme]

In my opinion (and experience) these practices are a waste of time because of how the brain processes information, let me explain:

Let's say you are a smoker and want to quit. Then you start writing some positive affirmations about the benefits of not smoking, repeat them out loud every morning and visualize yourself as if all already happened.

It may work or it may not work... what if you started smoking because you believe that smoking makes you look cool or is something very masculine? What if you think it's great for relaxation and socializing? What if you hate the cravings and anxiety and the pain is unbearable? What if you believe that smoking is a rebellious act and stopping is getting rid of your freedom of choice?

Here is the thing, if smoking gives you any secondary benefit in tune with a core belief or value, EVERY SINGLE TIME you do the ritual, your mind will reject it.

When this happens, you may need years of daily practice, if it works at all, until your belief system changes enough that you don't self-sabotage your efforts.

Now, what if instead of that you make a plan and write it down. You track how much you smoke and commit to steadily reduce the amount over time. Every day you check your progress and the maximum amount to smoke that day.

Here's when the magic happens. When you read the text, your mind is actually performing a "silent affirmation" and it "visualizes the goal". It just happens because to understand the meaning of words the brain translates written language to pictures, sounds and feelings.

Not only that, because you are tracking your progress and act upon it, the mind uses your own perception of time (which in NLP is called Timelines) and have accurate and "documented" evidence of actionable efforts and their benefits.

Your own mind will work hard FOR YOU in the background and make the necessary adjustments without conscious involvement. Well, because, you know? you're very busy DOING the tasks!

But wait, to be perfectly clear, I'm not saying that affirmations and visualizations don't work or that they're not worth the effort. What I'm saying is that they're not very efficient and sometimes not very effective.

In other words, if you write down your tasks for that day and do them, you get the same benefits of affirmations AND MUCH MORE, without the extra time and focus needed for them.

Do you want a very effective and powerful form of visualization?

Timelines.

-Sit with pen and paper and write down one goal in the future, use the SMART goals technique if necessary.
-Now close your eyes and visualize it as if already happened.
-Then step back (in your imagination) and think about what would've been the previous step to get there.
-And then visualize the previous one, and the previous one and so on...
-Leave "screenshots" of every step on your timeline while you go back in time until you get to the present time.
-Now write down the progression from the present time to the future.
-The next day start doing what's written on the list and keep going until you succeed.
-From time to time you may need some adjustments and it's as easy as stepping into your timeline, modifying your "screenshots" and note down the changes.

That's it, you don't need to do this every morning, or once a week, you can get away without doing it ever again. Why?

Because writting the plan serves as an anchor to your subconscious mind and the daily routine of writing the tasks will automatically reinforce the anchor AND perform an insta-affirmation-visualization.

You don't need to set aside extra time to do that and can focus 100% on executing, which is what undoubtedly gets results.

So, going back to smoking, don't you think this process would be much better than the classic possitive thinking?

I think it is. In fact if you want hardcore productivity you can just write the final goal every day and the next tasks/steps as they come and succeed because your mind will "affirm-and-visualize" anyway, and because you're taking action, YOU WILL CHANGE, your self-image and self-steem will progressively improve and negative beliefs will disappear because the habit of taking action.

 

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[TreyAllDay]

Here's when the magic happens. When you read the text, your mind is actually performing a "silent affirmation" and it "visualizes the goal". It just happens because to understand the meaning of words the brain translates written language to pictures, sounds and feelings.

Interesting take. I agree with much of what you said - and to be honest, I've made dozens of affirmations that I didn't stick to because I have no set goal. Tracking is huge - and so are ACTUAL written down numerical goals. An important part of the self-improvement process are 3 things I fill out each day now that I didn't before.

• What did you succeed at today?
• What did you learn?
• What did you fail at today, and why?
• What did you do today to move toward your goal?

I made goals to lose weight and would tell myself "I LOVEEEEE EXERCISE AND EATING HEALTHY" every day and failed to stay commited. I made arbitrary statements like "I will be financially free". Now, it's "I will gross $25,000/month by January." and "I will weigh 212 by Aug 1". I have dates of what I should weigh and earn on specific dates and my girlfriend receives a TEXT by a program I wrote if I do not enter my goals into the system and if I am behind on my goal.

 

[masterneme]

You're right questions are so much more powerful than statements or affirmations, I just remembered an exercise to do every morning in which you take your goal and write this:

If your goal is losing weight you can say, what can I do today to lose 10 kilos before September?

If I'm not mistaken the book "The One thing" has something similar, but you write the answer.

In this exercise you just write the question and do nothing. In theory, because the goal is formulated as a question, it engages your subconscious mind without rejecting it and "forces" it to find solutions by itself. And because you do it every day it creates a habit.

I haven't personally tested this, but I learnt it from a hypnotist who died some years ago and some of his students used it with good results.

I may do some experiments to see what happens.

Also, I want to clarify that when I say that affirmations and visualizations are not very effective, I mean in the context of goal oriented achievement.

For overall mental health and for skill/habit building they work well.

 

[SteveO]

The world is not what we believe it is. We are creators and experience it through our own perception. There is more going on with our energy than meets the eye. Thoughts do not create your reality. Your perception does. Not just because of how you are seeing the world. The events that are materializing are a result of your creations.

Thinking does not do anything but allow you to process what you see. Affirmations may help some people get over hurdles but are not necessary.

 

[Silver Silk]

Just recently started practicing goal visualization along with some other new habits and i do see the changes if im honest. Sometimes things happen that you cant explain. While i don't deem it essential to success id say it does play a role. Is your goal even that serious if you dont just visualise yourself completing it? All top athletes vision themselves winning before they even compete. You have to adopt the mindset of an overachiever if it isn't natural & always add more to the knowledge locker.

I think people go wrong when they think they visualise the goals but not put in the work, you have to work hard and grind it out. lots of people underestimate the tasks and how long things take. You have to be up for it to grind out the years of learning and honing the craft before the fruits manifest in some cases. I'm in the process now and while ive made small progress im still wayyyy off my set standards and goals but ill always keep going and do what I have to do.

Stay hungry guys!

 

[TreyAllDay]

Yes - see this is exactly where I see the value in affirmations. It is like @SteveO said, all how you perceive the world around you, and in my opinion if you aren't actively reminding your brain how to perceive it, you miss out on so much. I've had days where I felt like my business was going to shit and felt discouraged (not very often, but sometimes). But mostly I've had days where I've felt pumped up and like there is nothing but prosperity to be earned. All of the bad thoughts were in my head and had nothing to do with sales. So it's important for me to keep my head right.

Just a note/rant- maybe it's a generational thing? And a bit of it has rubbed off on me? I find with millennials especially - people are so much more prone to anxiety and stuff if they aren't reminded how great they are, it's almost trendy lol. Recently was watching a documentary on DDAY on the anniversary of the invasion, and it made me think: holy shit. These guys did this and people now are wasting their time watching TV, creating safe spaces, constantly depressed and have anxiety about the smallest of things. Anyway - these guys just got things done because they needed to.

 

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[Jadpapi]

I have been living by this since I was very poor abused kid living with my family in Egypt. At first I was doing it unconscious , before I came to USA I visualized my self already there, and believed it. Before I had my first business I did the same, and a lot of other things. It’s not magic it’s logic we become what we think about, but u must do the work by yourself, and do what it needs to be done everyday. I just have been aware of it lately after I analyzed my personal life.

 

[TreyAllDay]

I have been living by this since I was very poor abused kid living with my family in Egypt. At first I was doing it unconscious , before I came to USA I visualized my self already there, and believed it. Before I had my first business I did the same, and a lot of other things. It’s not magic it’s logic we become what we think about, but u must do the work by yourself, and do what it needs to be done everyday. I just have been aware of it lately after I analyzed my personal life.

agreed

 

[BigDaddyKane]

Bumping this because it's great.

Been on a really great routine lately of meditation and visualizing in either the morning or before bed. The irony is that your belief in whether it is effective will also determine your results. It's absolutely necessary in my opinion, in one form or another.