Affirmations Are Like Free Throws
Good morning, fellow affirmers!
Wherever you live in our world in 2022. you probably are familiar with the game of basketball. In North America, it’s been one of the four major sports for well over 100 years. The rest of the world has come around to it in recent decades.
If you’re familiar with the game, you’re familiar with free throws. During regular play, players guard each other, but free throws are shot when a player is fouled. If you’re a soccer/football fan, it’s like a penalty and a free kick.
How is an affirmation like a free throw? Three ways.
They both are a break from “regular play.”
They both require focus.
They both require a lot of practice and repetition.
During a typical day, you’re exposed to a myriad of thoughts and ideas that aren’t your own and may not support your goals and aspirations. The news has opinions. Your boss has opinions. Your friends have opinions. Your family has opinions. Every one is constantly pouring disjointed and distracting information to your vacuum of consciousness and your mind readily absorbs it.
Affirmations are a break from that constant deluge. They are a way to put information, ideas, and thoughts into your mind that support you - your well-being and your aspirations.
They both require focus. Many great basketball are mediocre free throw shooters. They can fall-away 20-footers with a hand in their face, but they can’t make an unguarded shot because they lack focus.
Your mind has been unconsciously absorbing thoughts that don’t serve you day in and Fay out for decades. Consciously focusing, especially at first, makes a huge difference with new affirmations. Whether read, listen, or say them, give them the focus that will help you succeed.
The last comparison, and maybe the most important, is practice and repetition. Even with great focus, great free throw shooters practice incessantly. Through repetition, they develop the muscle memory to make free throws practically automatically.
People often wonder why they are asked to use affirmations over and over. It’s because they are different from hearing a fact. A fact is something you hear once and you know it.
Affirmations have a different goal. You’re not repeating until you know it. You’re repeating until they replace old negative thought patterns that have enjoyed years of unconscious repetition in your mind.
You must practice and repeat affirmations over and over until that mental muscle memory forms that makes them your dominant thoughts no matter what els3 you’re exposed to during the day.
I’ve been using affirmations for 30 years. When you thin’ of them like free throws, they become an effective tool in you achieving the life you seek.
Wherever you are on your journey today, remember this. You’re a one-in-a-trillion miracle.
Put your mind on your side!
Ray