I'm using the affirmations!

When I joined Mary Kay a few years ago, instruction was given to write a description of who you are and who you're going to be in glowing terms.  Then to write a few affirmative sentences like, "I am a positive woman, I see beautiful women everywhere I go, I am successful, I am going to be a director," etc.  Post them on your mirror and say them to yourself several times a day.  Another source, can't remember where, said to put pictures of what you want where you can see them every day and imagine yourself having what are in the pictures. 

Napoleon Hill in his book "You Can Work Your Own Miracles (How to Condition Yourself for Success), printed in 1971, talks about conditioning your mind.  He had an experience at the dentist's office where he immersed himself in thinking of something so strongly that he forgot to focus on the pain.  Considering the fact that he was having six teeth taken out at the same time, I think that's an amazing demonstration of a conditioned mind. 

Though focusing, as Hill did, and affirmations seem to be two different things, they have a connection in that they are both thoughts that are being fed to the mind.  One type of thought is to distract, the other to train.  Right now I think it's important for me to train, or continue training my mind to think of certain things, and it doesn't hurt to have reminders of the positive because the negative still has a strong foothold.  So I'm putting a note on my bathroom mirror.  It will say things like "I am a likeable person, I plan to be prosperous, I plan to be focused, I will have an organized life."  Maybe I'll use those, maybe I'll use others.  That's a personal thing. 

I once told a finalist for a beauty pageant that the self-doubts she was beginning to show were of her own making.  "Your mind doesn't know if the thoughts you're feeding it are good or bad.  If you want to win, remind yourself of all the attributes you have that got you this far."  In taking my own advice, if I list the attributes I already have, and add the attributes I want to have, and talk myself through the list a few times a day, my mind is going to believe what I tell it.  I'll let you know the results next week.