Keep affirmations grounded

- [Host] We got the physical indicator or anchor and then shift in gears from the negative to the positive talk, what's the next step? - [Guest] Well, I want to remind folks that the affirmations must be really simple and bite-sized, right? Mine is I got this, nobody outworks me, and I can learn anything. And, you know, you asked me about research before. I wanted to turn your readers to a Lou Ber-mow-ski study from Harvard that talked about how three affirmations a day, if you are in the problem-solving world increased your efficiency to solve that problem, something like 26%. - No kidding. - [Guest] And if you are in the sales marketing world, your revenue went up 30 some odd percent by using three affirmations a day. And that what you tell yourself you start to believe and how it translated directly to the output of your work. Your production, your ability to solve complex problems. And so, that affirmation and that self-talk moves right into that next thing, which is reminding yourself of how good you are. - [Host] Oh yes, well, this affirmation stuff, that's juicy, I love a good study with some numbers behind it. So we had Hal Elrod, who talked about the six morning habits of high performers. He brought "The Miracle Morning" and such on the show earlier. And he gave some great distinctions associated with what makes an affirmation good versus delusional and problematic. So, I'd love to hear your take, so, from the research, what are some of the ingredients or dos and don'ts for a positive affirmation? Now, when I'm recalling, I think Hal used the example of money flows effortlessly to me, I am a magnet for wealth is not so helpful 'cause your brain goes, "No, it doesn't, I've got to hustle and bend over backwards to make things happen," and so can you give us some pro tips on making those affirmations effective? - [Guest] I think it's a great question and one of the things I recognized early on is in order to have an affirmation be meaningful and have genuine belief, you have to have genuine control over it. And so that locus of control for an affirmation is really important and critical. Nobody outworks me, so I can control that. I can learn anything, I can control that too, right? And so when you listen to those things, are they within your circle of influence? The magic for me as a sports psychologist is to always give agency to the people to control their affirmation. So it has to be something that you can master and you can own.