Most of us have goals, dreams or ambitions but do not know how to go about achieving them. You may have thought about what would make up self- improvement and your ideal life, but have no idea how to even begin to make the plans and take the actions required to make them a reality.

Every thought you think and every word you say is an affirmation. Affirmations are very powerful tools that can be key in bringing about change in your life, whether it is in the form of personal change or bringing new situations into your life. Self-affirmations are healing, optimistic messages that you give to yourself to counter your negative messages. Affirmations resemble visualisation with mental images but words are used instead. Words you say out loud, read or write each day that will help you internalise what you want to be and what you hope to achieve. Affirmations are self improvement prophecies that when visualised and believed in will come true.

You may have a vague idea on how to go about self-improvement. Many of us believe that if only we had a better job, or had been given better opportunities, or met the love of our life, or whatever else, everything would be fine and we would be happy. We feel that our happiness or lack of happiness is decided by external factors and our thoughts and actions are of little consequence. We believe that if only we had more money we could have whatever we want and be on their way to self-improvement.

Some of us may have spent little time thinking about what we actually want from life, and do not really believe there is anything we can do to create our fuzzy version of utopia anyway, apart from buying more lottery tickets.

Other people don’t even know what they actually want from their lives and may even have little idea what would really makes them happy. They seem to just drift from day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year, and do little more than just about get by.

They may have seemingly secure jobs and be earning enough to live relatively comfortable lives. They seem happy enough and have no great ambition to achieve anything more from their lives than they currently have.

Is self-improvement important and can affirmations help?

Throughout our lives we are all constantly growing and developing. Circumstances make us grow and develop, even if we do not make the conscious decision to do so. Up to a certain age, we learn through formal education and we continue to learn through our experiences for the rest of our lives. We have to learn and grow to deal with everything that life throws at us. We all have to go through self-improvement. Modern life moves at a dramatically faster pace than at anytime in history. For anyone living in modern society there are more opportunities to do anything that you want to do with your life than ever before.

Because the workplace is so competitive, people who are ambitious and hungry for success know they need to learn new skills and knowledge to keep ahead of the pack. To attain this, self-improvement is needed.

So where does affirmations come in? Affirmations help you to improve yourself because by nature humans are compelled to follow what they believe in. What motivates you is your belief in the end result. If you continually tell yourself something, your inner self will make it become true. Affirmations strengthen ambition, create new solutions and activate the subconscious mind in order to make your affirmation come true. The affirmations you repeat will become a positive habit that will result in self-improvement of your mind, body and soul.

Affirmations are said starting with the words: “I am”, “I can”, and I will”. An “I am” affirmation is a statement of who you are such as I am intelligent or I am creative. An “I can” affirmation is a statement of your potential and power to change such as I can be strong or I can be a winner. An “I will” affirmation is a statement of positive change that you want to accomplish such as I will control my temper or I will handle financial matters wisely today. Affirmations should always be stated in a positive manner. An excellent way to use affirmations is to right down 30 of them, each on a separate index card. Each day of the month focus on one affirmation. Keep the card with you displayed in your sight and read it out loud during the day.

Just repeating the words is not enough. Affirmations are not magical sentences that are said just a few times and then create miracles. For affirmations to produce results, they should be repeated often with feeling and conviction.

A commitment to self-improvement and personal growth may well be the deciding factor in how anyone’s future will turn out; and the affirmations you repeat will become a positive habit that will result in-self improvement of your mind, body and soul.