How Positive Affirmations Changed My Life

Since this is the first ever blog post on Free Affirmations, I thought it would be nice to share my story, how I have used positive affirmations and what they have helped me to change and achieve in my life.

I am an affirmations (and self improvement generally) super fan.. I use them every day, and I credit them to helping me achieve many of my personal successes in my life, but lets start at the beginning..

My Name Is..

My name is Thomas Allan. I am an addict – a positive affirmations addict. I have used them for over 20 years and I have rarely missed a day without saying them to myself!

I have used them almost constantly, and at certain times of my life I certainly was obsessive about them (is an obsession such a bad thing if it leads to success?). They really took over my life in a big way, changing how I would approach certain tasks, and I would be always aware of my affirmations and therefore the goals they were tied to.

This for some people would be too much, and yes, I got some weird comments and questions from people along the way about my affirmations and positive self talk (I’d often sticky personal messages to my computer / desk etc).

Would this bother me? No. Would I change anything? No.

I have always wanted to reach higher and achieve something big in my life, now I am far from the most successful person in the country but I can say I have lived a life of my own design, I enjoy an early retirement and I am grateful for the businesses I have built which still earn me an almost passive income.

Positive affirmations have helped me to sculpt my mind, helped me to aim bigger, to focus on my goals and to pursue success with single minded determination and a positive attitude no matter what.

Anyway, back to a more “timelined” way of writing this post – here is a progression of how I have used positive affirmations over the years for different areas of my life.

My First Attempts

I first started using affirmations over 20 years ago when I was just 17. I was shy and introverted and I did struggle to make friends at college after leaving school.

I started to read about self improvement and using positive affirmations and I took to them like a duck to water. One minute I was a shy 17 year old, and then quite quickly – even within a few days I saw some improvements and I felt like I was looking at the first days of the rest of my life – a much improved life where I would be able to work towards my dreams and achieve real things!

I began to see a difference in my inner thoughts at first, just in  how I thought about myself, my mood and my basic levels of happiness and self esteem.

After another 2-3 weeks or so (of saying my affirmations for 5 minutes on a morning and 5 minutes before going to bed) things really started to become noticeable – not just for myself, but for other people too.

I definitely became more outgoing, socialising and meeting new people didn’t seem scary, in-fact it soon became fun and I found myself excited to make new friends and find out about them.

It was around this time that I began to actually feel things clicking into place within my mind..  it sounds weird to explain, but when I first started using affirmations it was like they changed my brain on a deeper level and in a permanent way.

The Next 20 Years

For the next 20+ years I kept to my morning and evening ritual.

I still to this day start and finish my day by saying my affirmations. Of course the list always evolves and changes focus by what I have going on in my life at the present time, what goals I am working on or what changes I want to make to myself.

I have used affirmations for every goal imaginable! They have helped me to lose weight and to keep my motivation up and mindset focused on exercising regularly. I took this further and used affirmations to push me further into my running training and to help me excel in sports generally.

I have used them in my personal life and with my personal hobbies. I am not a robot, I have used them to give me a boost when I have been feeling low or frustrated, but most of all I have used them to develop a..

Success Mindset

Throughout all of my adult life I have mainly used them to “develop an entrepreneur mindset” – to focus my mind for success in business.

Gaining confidence as a young man was fantastic, but really, more than anything, affirmations have helped me to create a life of my own design, to make money, and find success in my business and financial pursuits.

I had always wanted to work for myself, I have always wanted to make enough money to not be reliant upon work, and so that I could look after my friends and family – especially my family so they wouldn’t have to work late into their adult lives.

All I had in the early days was drive and ambition – but little skill or experience 🙂 I know I wanted it badly and that was a good foundation, but my positive self talk gave me so many helping hands, advantages and boosts over the years that I have lost count.

They gave me the confidence and determination to go for it early on – I would sit in my car saying my affirmations before a meeting with a new (often) older client or contact. They helped me to not be intimidated, and to walk the walk.. I basically faked it till I made it, stayed positive and pushed on through setbacks and failures until I did make it.

Setting up a business isn’t easy, there are pitfalls, problems more often than not, setbacks, delays, even outright failure and plans and businesses collapsing despite your best efforts. Most of all my affirmations helped me to stay solid as a rock, and to keep pushing through failure (to see failure only as feedback) and keep working towards my goals one step at a time.

Now

I now live in a state of “sort of early retirement”.

I have spent the last couple of decades setting up and running multiple businesses, investing in land, property, and real estate but now I “work” much less. This site is one way I occupy a little of my time more recently, I run it as a “passion project” and have a few other personal passion projects like it; just “things” I want to do / try. I do also still get involved a little in some businesses I still have interest in, but I rarely work full days anymore.

I hope you found my story interesting, I wrote it to simply share more of who I am, but if it inspires just one person to take up affirmations then I will be happy.

I still say my positive affirmations every day.