BY Terry Pryor, Writer, Poet, Life Coach, and Student of the Mind
Note: This is the first month of action described in a series of motivational articles. Take some time each month to complete these action items and you’ll see a “New You” emerge. Enjoy!
About Affirmations
Affirmations are tools that declare an intention. In other words, you are making a positive statement or command intended not only to change your outlook but also to elicit the assistance of your higher self, God, the angels, or whatever you perceive to be a greater power than you. Whether you believe you are the only one hearing these words or not, the magic of affirmations declared with faith is that they work.
Remember the example of the Olympic athletes we talked about last month: The mind cannot tell the difference between an actual event and a vividly imagined one.
It is with the power of your words, your thoughts, and your intentions that the magic of change begins.
Fake It ’til You Make It
I’m sure you have heard the expression “Fake it ’til you make it.” Putting something into practice results in an empowering mental benefit. The subconscious acts predominantly on your feelings. What you feel is its fuel bringing you more of the same. It doesn’t know if you really have a job or not or if you have the perfect home. It only knows what you feel.
Whatever you desire, feel what having it will mean to you—in other words, fake it ’til you make it!
Power Action #1: Vacation
(Choose a weekday rather than a weekend day)
If you’re working at an unfulfilling job, or you don’t have a job and, therefore, don’t have money coming in, taking a day off seems ludicrous. After all, taking time off might appear to unwind into the future like a huge ball of string.
I would like to suggest otherwise.
Power Action #1: Today, you start to invent the new you, and the new you is open to a truckload of new possibilities. The new you has an open and flexible mind, willing to try anything. The new you is filled with the idea of a day totally different from any other day. I give you permission to play hooky.
This month, I want you to do things that you may not have done in a long time.
On this first Day of Power, you are to get away from anything that remotely looks like a routine. Whatever your job is or was, it probably consisted of, in part, a regimented daily schedule.
When was the last time you went to a matinee movie? Go see one.
Take a long hike through town or your own neighborhood, which you may not have done in a while—or ever.
Go for a bike ride. Go to the zoo.
Have lunch at that great little restaurant you haven’t visited since before COVID that serves those gigantic Reuben sandwiches or have one of those terrific pizzas the local pub serves up. Try that new restaurant you’ve been intending to check out.
I want to suggest that you spend at least four or five hours out there in your city or town—your own backyard, so to speak.
I want you to do this alone. Don’t take anyone along, even if someone offers to go.
This is a play day for you, and only you.
If you have lost your job or have not found the perfect one yet, or if life does not look fun or positive anymore, it’s possible that you will experience moments of complete mind-numbing fear today, moments where you wonder what the heck just happened to your life and what are you doing at an afternoon movie on a Tuesday. When that happens, push those thoughts away. Know that in the very near future, you are going to begin accomplishing great things.
For now, have fun. That energy is very important.
