Day 5. Affirmations, visualization, and why positive thinking is not enough
The 5-Day Mental Strength Challenge | Exclusively for members of Club 12 with Dean Bokhari
Welcome to Day 5 of the Club 12 Mental Strength Challenge, a 5-part series designed to help you stop being ruled by fear, worry, distraction, and fragmented thinking — and start training your mind to become calm, clear, focused, and strong.
Here’s what we’ve covered so far:
Here’s what I’ve got in store for the final day of this series…
Today, I’m going to break down three methods for developing your mental strength that you can leverage to get more of what you want out of life.
All three of the techniques I’m about to share with you are often misunderstood, misused, and misinterpreted — both by the people that teach it, as well as those on the receiving end.
I’m talking about 1) positive thinking, 2) affirmations, and 3) visualization.
There’s a lot of “woo woo” that revolves around these practices, so I want you to keep one important thing in mind before we dive in:
None of this will work if it doesn’t translate into action.
You can sit around trying to “manifest”1 your “dream life” all day long…
But if it doesn’t lead to you getting off your ass and taking the actions required to make it a reality – ain’t nothin’ gonna happen.
And that’s the part so many people seem to conveniently overlook.
None of this matters unless it gets you results.
So let me show you how it actually works.
1.
Positive thinking
You’ve heard it before — “Just think positive” — as if thinking alone magically transforms your life…
It doesn’t, and it won’t. At least not on its own.
When you hear me say something like, “We become what we think about,” I’m not saying that’s all there is to it.
Positive thinking alone is not enough.
Your thoughts are just one part of a three-part equation.
Real change and transformation occur when we address the other two parts alongside positive thinking—which include your actions and your feelings.
Think of it this way: Imagine a three-legged stool… Your thoughts, actions, and feelings represent each of the individual legs on the stool.
Each of them depend on one another.
If one breaks, the stool gets wobbly. If two break, you fall on your ass.
Each leg of the stool must be strong and capable enough to support you.
In other words: Your thoughts feed your actions which feed your feelings.
And your feelings inform your thoughts which inform your actions.
Yes, positive thinking is powerful, but only when we think of it as one of the three necessary legs that reinforces the stool we’re sitting on.
If we don’t want the stool to wobble or break, we’ve got to make sure we give each leg the care it needs to keep us from falling down and getting hurt.
What’s the best way to do that?
Well, you want to make sure all three “legs” of your stool are stable and in check:
First, remember that the way you think has got to be in line with the way you…
Act, because the way you act is going to have an impact on the way you…
Feel. And the way you feel is going to help you either reinforce the way you think, or re-examine the way you think…
Which is all going to circle right back around into helping you choose how you want to act in any given situation… See the feedback loop these three end up creating?
It’s not about positive thinking alone that drives our success in life — it’s about being in positive congruence with the way we think, act, and feel that drives our success in life…
Here’s how to use positive thinking:
Practice thinking positive about as much as you can in your life—it helps.
Then, translate those thoughts into actions.
2.
Affirmations
If you want to change your conditions, you’ve got to change yourself. A great way to do that is by repeating what you want rather than what you don’t.
If your thoughts are dominated by the failures of your past, you’ll recreate those conditions.
When your thoughts are dominated by what you want, you activate a part of your brain called the Reticular Activating System, or RAS – which behaves like a filter for everything around you.
It filters out the stuff you’re not thinking about, and hones in on what you are.
It’s the same thing that’s responsible for when you decide to get a specific kind of car… You decide you want a red Range Rover, and now, you start seeing red Rovers all over the place. Land Rover didn’t start producing more of them; your RAS is simply highlighting what you’re focusing on.
Positive thinking and affirmations work the same way, just with ideas, opportunities, and solutions, instead of cars.
When you constantly repeat a powerful affirmation, it becomes part of who you are, allowing you to actively make yourself what you want to be.
Here’s how to use affirmations:
First, if you’ve ever tried affirmations in the past, and didn’t get the results you wanted, you might’ve overlooked a key ingredient to making them work: Emotion. When you repeat something with enough emotional intensity, it tells your brain to pay attention. Most folks repeat affirmations like the guy from those old Visine commercials—dry, monotone, and without emotion. If you want something, put your heart into it.
Here are two powerful affirmations that can help you get more of what you want out of life. Pick one and practice it twice a day—first thing in the morning, and right before bed:
