Week
26

Acknowledge Your
Positive Past

AFFIRMATIONS

for

Meditation and Reflection

I am happily celebrating both my big successes and my small successes.

I am rewarding myself whenever I achieve a goal—encouraging my subconscious mind to create and attract even more success in my life.

I am feeling a great sense of accomplishment, completion, and fulfillment with every goal I achieve.

I look back on my life like a good day’s work; it is done and I am satisfied with it.

—GRANDMA MOSES
One of America’s most famous folk artists,
who only began painting in earnest at age 78

Today, we’re going to learn to change the way we view our past failures—and discover the true value of our past successes.

A few chapters back we talked about how the brain is wired to remember past events that were accompanied by strong emotions and sensory stimuli (smell, sound, taste, sight, touch). Most of us underestimate the number of successes we’ve had because, over time, our brains have been conditioned to remember our failures.

Most people can more easily name 10 failures they’ve experienced over the past week than 10 successes they’ve achieved. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is that our standard for labeling something a failure is so low compared to the bar we hold over our heads when determining a success. With affirmations that help you celebrate even “small” successes, you’ll be retraining your brain to remember the times you were competent, skillful, insightful, hard-working, and successful.

I am happily celebrating both my big successes and my small successes.

Acknowledging your positive past is important because of the effect it has on your self-esteem. Let’s say that you and I are playing poker—you have 10 chips, and I have 200. Lose one or two bets and you’re out, while I would be able to continue playing full out—40 times longer, in fact!

Self-esteem is like that—the more you have, the more risks you can take and the longer you can stay in the game.

If your self-esteem is high, you can actually fail at something and it won’t destroy you. You would simply dust yourself off, and say, Next!—immediately moving forward with a different approach or onto another opportunity altogether.

To help your brain focus on those times you’ve been successful, here’s an exercise I frequently teach:

Divide your life into three time periods (such as 0–15, 16–30, and 31–45 years old, and so on.) Then list three successes for each time period. Better yet, make a list of 100 or more successes you’ve achieved during your lifetime. Post these lists where you can read them anytime your self-esteem starts to slip a little.

I am rewarding myself whenever I achieve a goal—encouraging my subconscious mind to create and attract even more success in my life.

L
et’s look at some other ways to acknowledge your positive past. Each one is uniquely effective, so I encourage you to give each of them a chance to work in your life.

• Create a victory log: Keep a running record of your daily successes. At the end of the day you will be surprised at the number of entries you have. At the end of the week you will be stunned. By the end of the month you will be ecstatic!
• Display your success symbols: Whether it’s a trophy from Little League, an award from Toastmasters, or a framed copy of your first industry recognition, keep symbols of success where you can see them.
• Do “The Mirror Exercise”: Uncomfortable, yes, but it will help you give yourself the acknowledgment you deserve—from yourself. Stand in front of a mirror, look yourself in the eye, address yourself by name, and appreciate yourself out loud for all the things you’ve accomplished that day: professional achievements, resolutions you kept, and temptations you avoided. Do it every night before you go to bed for at least 40 days.

I am feeling a great sense of accomplishment, completion, and fulfillment with every goal I achieve.