I wanted to pick up today talk a little bit more about affirmation journals and issue an affirmation challenge.
One of the things I have been doing a lot of learning a lot about over the last about four years is controlling your thoughts, taking control of your thoughts, and not allowing yourself to sabotage what it is that you want to achieve.
I had a habit of doing this, and I did not realize this until one of the people I worked for said you know, it really seems like you are sabotaging our success in what you’re doing. I started talking to someone about it, and really started trying to understand what is causing it and how to overcome it.
A friend of mine came up with this affirmation plan call the 490 plan. How it works is that you write an affirmation seven times a day for seventy days, for a total of 490 times. There is actually a Biblical reason behind this too.
When Jesus was asked how many times do you forgive your brother, the person asking if it was seven times seven times? Jesus responded no, that you should forgive them seventy times seven times, or 490 times.
The theory is that this is how much repetition it takes our brain to latch onto something and change the way we’re thinking about it.
So here’s the thing, I would really encourage you to jump on and do this with me. You’re going to need a notebook, doesn’t really matter what kind or how fancy, so long as you use it. I would also recommend that you physically write it as opposed to typing it.
In terms of the affirmation, use this as a guideline: “I am so thankful and grateful that _______,” and you fill in the blank with your goal. You want to fill in that blank with something present tense because we have to get to the point where we can experience of the feelings of having achieved the goal.
The reason feeling it is important is because we can say something in our head, but our faith comes from our heart. So if we’re not feeling it, then there’s no faith that it is actually there and happening. That’s the part that we have to grasp on to.
In the book of James it says that the reason you have not received is because you have not asked in faith. In other words you have not asked believing that it will be so. Jesus told us that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could go and tell a mountain to jump into the sea, and it would.
So how do we develop that faith? In other words, how do we take the doubt out of what it is we are asking for, and know that we achieve it, that we will get whatever it is we are asking for, it’s just a matter of timing and details.
That’s what the affirmation journal comes in because it isn’t really up to us to figure out how it is we are going to achieve our goals, God is going to provide that for you. What it is is us really getting rid of the doubt and beginning to see that what it is that we’re aiming for we are going to achieve.
Sometimes people recommend putting a date on the end of it. For me this was just self-defeating because I was pushing off the feelings of having achieved my goal because I thought I will feel it when I achieve it at whatever the date was in the future. You also want to avoid saying to yourself someday for the same reason. It really needs to be right now, present tense, “I am so thankful and grateful that __________,” right now, present tense, and you keep writing that.
When you write it, close your eyes and feel it, envision it for yourself, and feel what it feels like whatever that thing is that you’re trying to achieve.
One of the things I have been doing a lot of learning a lot about over the last about four years is controlling your thoughts, taking control of your thoughts, and not allowing yourself to sabotage what it is that you want to achieve.
I had a habit of doing this, and I did not realize this until one of the people I worked for said you know, it really seems like you are sabotaging our success in what you’re doing. I started talking to someone about it, and really started trying to understand what is causing it and how to overcome it.
A friend of mine came up with this affirmation plan call the 490 plan. How it works is that you write an affirmation seven times a day for seventy days, for a total of 490 times. There is actually a Biblical reason behind this too.
When Jesus was asked how many times do you forgive your brother, the person asking if it was seven times seven times? Jesus responded no, that you should forgive them seventy times seven times, or 490 times.
The theory is that this is how much repetition it takes our brain to latch onto something and change the way we’re thinking about it.
So here’s the thing, I would really encourage you to jump on and do this with me. You’re going to need a notebook, doesn’t really matter what kind or how fancy, so long as you use it. I would also recommend that you physically write it as opposed to typing it.
In terms of the affirmation, use this as a guideline: “I am so thankful and grateful that _______,” and you fill in the blank with your goal. You want to fill in that blank with something present tense because we have to get to the point where we can experience of the feelings of having achieved the goal.
The reason feeling it is important is because we can say something in our head, but our faith comes from our heart. So if we’re not feeling it, then there’s no faith that it is actually there and happening. That’s the part that we have to grasp on to.
In the book of James it says that the reason you have not received is because you have not asked in faith. In other words you have not asked believing that it will be so. Jesus told us that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could go and tell a mountain to jump into the sea, and it would.
So how do we develop that faith? In other words, how do we take the doubt out of what it is we are asking for, and know that we achieve it, that we will get whatever it is we are asking for, it’s just a matter of timing and details.
That’s what the affirmation journal comes in because it isn’t really up to us to figure out how it is we are going to achieve our goals, God is going to provide that for you. What it is is us really getting rid of the doubt and beginning to see that what it is that we’re aiming for we are going to achieve.
Sometimes people recommend putting a date on the end of it. For me this was just self-defeating because I was pushing off the feelings of having achieved my goal because I thought I will feel it when I achieve it at whatever the date was in the future. You also want to avoid saying to yourself someday for the same reason. It really needs to be right now, present tense, “I am so thankful and grateful that __________,” right now, present tense, and you keep writing that.
When you write it, close your eyes and feel it, envision it for yourself, and feel what it feels like whatever that thing is that you’re trying to achieve.
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