Tabula Rasa
The Power of Positive Affirmations

Background

Psychologists and brain researchers are finding evidence to support what greatly successful people in our culture have always known:

1. That what happens around us is much less important than what happens within us.
2. That the unconscious mind never forgets anything and never sleeps.
3. That we talk to ourselves as the rate of 400-500 words per minute 7 x 24 x 365.
4. That it is our self-talk that determines our feelings, attitudes and successes in life.
5. That we can exert influence over our attitudes, feelings and create our successes by developing the habit of positive self-talk.

In the months ahead my intention is to create a series of affirmations that relate to you, to your profession and to your decision to become a highly successful professional, one of the truly competent ones of your generation.

In Affirmation #1, I summarize the key points above and layout the '#1 rule for mastering the attitudes of greatness'...

Affirmation #1

Today I begin a new life.
Today I shed my old identity.
Today I am born anew.

Today I proudly and enthusiastically proclaim that this (sales) is my profession and it will be my career and the vehicle I will use to pursue and achieve great success. Today I see clearly that this career is laden with potential and it is my joy to develop and exploit it to the benefit of my customers, my company and associates, my family and myself. I will not fail.

Just as nature did not create my mind to tolerate mediocrity, neither has it made provision for my life to suffer failure. From this day forward failure and mediocrity are banned from my life.

Today I have discovered that the only difference between those who fail and those who succeed in life lies in the difference of their habits. Good habits are the key to all success. Bad habits are the pathway to certain failure. Therefore the first law of success I will obey is this: I will form good habits and become their slave.

As children, we are all slaves to our appetites and impulses but as adults it is the habits we form and follow that define us. If I must be a slave, then I will choose to be a slave of good habits, not bad. My bad habits I will destroy and it their place I will make the choice to build patterns of excellence.

And how will I do this?

I will discover and master the principles and practices of excellence and as I do so, each bad habit will be banished from my life, for it is one of nature's laws that only a habit can subdue another habit. I will choose good over bad habits and I will prosper.

First, I will write these principles on 3 X 5 cards, in my own handwriting and words, so it is clear to the world that they belong to me. I will thus claim them for my own and carry them with me at all times and wherever I go.

Next, I will develop the habit of reading these words three times each day for a period of thirty days before moving on to the next set of principles. First I will read them when I rise, then again after my mid-day meal and finally I will read them just before I retire, only this time I will read them out loud so that my mind can hear its own voice proclaiming our commitment to excellence and as we hear this message repeated day after day, I will come to believe.

In this I am following the practice of the great Ben Franklin and like he did throughout his life, I will continue this habit of repeating each cherished principle of excellence for 30 full days. As this habit worked for him, so shall it work for me. With each repetition they will become deeply ingrained in my mind, in my heart and in my soul. They will permeate every part of my conscious and unconscious existence until their seeds take root and bring forth the fruit that will remake me in their image.

This is the formula that will transform every aspect of my life and I will begin it, yes I have already begun it, this very day and hour.