People often start enthusiastically repeating affirmations, visualizing and using various inner growth techniques. They sometimes get fast, though minor results, and this makes them feel happy and elated, but after a while, nothing seems to work anymore. This causes frustration and bewilderment, and makes people wonder what they are doing wrong. Sometimes this leads them to abandon the techniques they have been using.

This is quite a common occurrence, and you might have faced this situation yourself.  After reading a book or attending a workshop on personal development, the law of attraction or any other subject related to personal development, you become inspired and motivated. You suddenly discover that you can make changes in your life.

You start practicing what you have learned, and you soon obtain visible results. You feel elated and satisfied that you are making progress, but then, all of a sudden, nothing seems to work anymore. You affirm and visualize or follow other techniques, but nothing happens. This is quite frustrating.

Some people abandon their hopes and expectations, feeling they are facing a wall. Others read book after book or participate in endless workshops, believing that this will help them understand better the inner laws. This sometimes turns into an obsession of reading one book after another, and practically doing nothing.

Why does this happen? Why the techniques work at first and then stop bring results?

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The success industry has turned into a huge machine, creating a growing number of books, videos, audios and workshops, all promising big and quick success, without any effort. All these products create a sense of euphoria, great expectations, and often, also frustration. The producers of many of these products make great promises, and tell you that all you need to succeed is just a little of your time. Sometimes all you have to do is just repeat a few affirmations or visualize a goal a few minutes a day, and you will soon enjoy great success and the fulfillment of your dreams.

Can this be true? Does everyone who reads the book, listens to the video or participates in the workshop become a great success? In spite of all these products and promises, how many really succeed? How many really successful people are, in relation to the entire population?

Don’t misunderstand me. I believe in the power of the mind. I have written articles and books on this subject, but I also believe in common sense and in being practical. Creative visualization and the law of attraction are useful tools that work when used correctly, and there are good and useful books and other products available. I am speaking here about the growing tendency of making great promises and the tendency to oversimplify things.

I am sure you have bought and read more than one book, audio or video about achieving success. How many have read the book, listened to the audio or watching the video they have bought, and more important, how many have followed and implemented the instructions? There is a great distance between experiencing a feeling of elation, which people often experience when they are first introduced to these subjects, to actually using the techniques, persevering and then gaining results.

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“What you repeatedly think and say is what you get”. Your inner conversations, words, thoughts and feelings determine the kind of life and reality you experience. If you occupy your mind with negative thoughts and expect difficulties and problems, you will draw them into your life. If you constantly think of success you will achieve success. If you find it difficult to think positively, affirmations can help you change the way you think. It is a powerful method to transform the thinking patterns.

Affirmations are positive statements, which use the power of words to program the subconscious mind, and build new habits, free from negative habits, motivate and attract success.

The greatness of the human mind is that it can think and imagine what does not exist right now. It can envision situations and circumstances that are different from the current reality, and in this way create better situations and circumstances. By focusing frequently on certain thought or affirmation, you make it an important part of your life, and will therefore start acting and behaving in such a way, as to make it true.

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Imagine someone could grant you three wishes, what would you choose?

Would you ask for the first thing that comes to your mind, or would you give it deep thought and make a wise choice? Or maybe you know exactly what you want, and don’t even have to think about it?

It is a difficult question if you are vague about what they really want. Actually, most people don’t have clear goals, while those who gained great success knew exactly what they wanted and saw it clearly in their minds. Without setting clear and definite goals you will not be able to focus your energies and not accomplish much, so the first step for success is to know exactly what you want.

This is a difficult task for most people. Many go through life where it takes them, lacking any direction. They find it difficult to arrive to a clear understanding of their abilities, what they are best suited to do, and what they really desire to do with their lives.

You need to look inside you for the answer. Sit down everyday with a pencil and paper, where you won’t be disturbed, and write down all the ideas that come to your mind. Analyze every desire, its pros and cons, and whether you really want it achieved. You will be surprised how many ideas, which look plausible at first, turn to be futile and useless goals after a little thinking.

Don’t despair if you don’t find anything that really interests you. Just keep thinking, writing down and analyzing your ideas day after day. Even if you don’t find what is most important for you after a few days, a week or more, the understanding and insight will gradually unfold to you.

Remember, even small goals are goals. One of the reasons people find it difficult to decide about goals is because they believe they have to choose something big, and this frightens them. They might be afraid of the big responsibilities that come by pursuing and achieving big goals, and prefer to lead a simple, ordinary life.

When looking for your real and true desires, don’t just think about the wealthy and famous people you see on TV or read about in the newspapers. Not everyone wants or attains fame and power. Achieving smaller goals on a personal and more mundane level might be what want or prefer, and that’s quite okay.

You should be clear about your goals and ask yourself the following questions:

Upon achieving this goal, would I be happy and satisfied?
What will it solve in my life?
What will be its effect on my life?
What will be its effect on other people?
Do I really ant to achieve it?

After finding what you want and being sure about it, try to see how you can make your goal a little bigger. Don’t limit your thinking, because whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can eventually accomplish. For example, if your goal is a good and satisfying job, think about something bigger and believe you can get it. If you desire to a certain amount of money, and you feel mentally comfortable with it, try thinking about a larger amount. If your goal is losing a certain amount of weight, try getting your mind comfortable with the idea of losing a little more, provided of course you don’t harm your health, and so on and on.

After setting clear and definite goals you will certainly know what are your three most important wishes. You don’t need to ask for a genie to grant them, because you have within you the power to make them come true. This is the power of your mind, expressed through visualization and affirmations.

Remember, what the mind can conceive and believe to be possible, it can eventually achieve.

I am often asked about affirmations, how to use them, and whether they really work.

I am sure you have heard about affirmations, but in case you didn’t, affirmations are positive statements, which describe in positive words a desired situation, event, habit or action, and which are repeated many times, so that they get into the subconscious mind and influence it. By repeating them, you program your subconscious mind to help you manifest your goals, change your habits or develop new skills.

It is not enough to repeat affirmations just a few times. This is one of the reasons for the failure to get results, and which eventually leads to losing faith and giving up the use of affirmations.

If you wish to use affirmations and get results, I would advise you to start with small objectives at first, in order to get some experience. It often happens that after a few days of repeating affirmations the mind starts raising doubts about the efficiency of affirmations. If your goal is a small one, it takes a shorter time to achieve it, and therefore the mind has less time to raise doubts.

Small success at first, will strengthen your faith in the method, and the resistance of your mind will diminish.

For affirmations to produce results, they should be repeated often, with attention, interest, desire, feeling and inner conviction. Don’t stand in their way by raising doubts and thinking negatively. It is also important that you don’t just affirm, stay passive and wait. Follow your intuition, do things and take the opportunities that come your way.

How do affirmations work?

# They motivate you to do something, in order that you attain your desires and goals.

# By repeating affirmations, you become more aware of opportunities that might surface, and which could make your aims and goals come true.

# Affirmations can strengthen your ambition and desire.

# Affirmations that you repeat often, with attention and emotion, affect your subconscious mind, behavior and habits.

# They program the subconscious mind to bring up helpful ideas for making the affirmations come true.

# Affirmations activate the power of the subconscious mind, which will supply the desire, ideas, opportunities, and even the right circumstances.

You can find detailed information and guidance about affirmations and how to use them effectively, in the book “Affirmations - Words of Power”. It is comprised of two parts,  the first includes information and guidance and the second includes a long list of positive affirmations suitable for almost every aim and goal. Click on the link below for more information:
Affirmations Words of Power