If Affirmations Don’t Work For You— You’re Probably Doing Them Wrong

The science behind affirmations and positive self-talk

Photo by Chris Devers on Flickr

How many times have you read a self-help guru suggest that one of the steps to achieving a big goal is to write positive affirmations, to visualize yourself as the person you’re trying to become? Dozens. Hundreds. Uncountable times if you’re in an aspirational mindset stage of life.

For years I dutifully followed the directions and wrote affirmations, just like they recommend—

• I am a writer.
• The story I’m telling has value.
• I am the best and only person who can tell this story in this way.
• I am becoming a better writer every day.
• I will write today and every day.
• I am stronger than rejection.
• I believe in myself and in my story.

—only to fail, fail again and finally decide that positive affirmations and visualizations just don’t work for me. And then I stumbled on some research about voter behavior and found the answer to why the affirmations I was writing just weren’t working for me. I was doing them wrong—for me.