“Take the attitude of a student: never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.”
— OG MANDINO
If this were a traditional success book, the next thing I would tell you is that after you’ve “set your goals” (asked yourself what you want), you should start making a plan to get there. After all, that sounds logical, doesn’t it? Just like our cross-country road trip, once you know your destination, you’d just pack up your stuff and head out, right?
Well, that approach would work if not for one tiny little detail: that annoying but inescapable fact that most people don’t believe they can reach their goals in the first place.
Bottom line: what’s been missing in our industry is a specific, proven, simple method to overcome the Belief Gap. Well, here it is:
The Afformations Method Step Two: Form a New Question That Assumes That What You Want Is Already True.
The second step of The Afformations Method is to start creating empowering questions that assume that what you want is already so, has already happened, or is true!
This is the key to creating Afformations that will change your life.
How This Works
Your life is a reflection of the thought-seeds you plant and give energy to. More precisely, your life is a reflection of the unconscious assumptions you make about life and your relationship to it.
For example, if you grew up in an environment where there wasn’t much money, you would probably assume that making money is hard, and that’s just the way it is. And because you made this assumption unconsciously, you probably wouldn’t even realize that you’re holding on to it in the first place.
If you could find a mechanism that could record the thought-seeds you’re planting on the inside and play them back to you on the outside, it might sound something like this:
Well, a mechanism does exist that records and reflects your subconscious thought-seeds. That mechanism is called your life!
This Is Your Life
So here you are, unknowingly asking yourself these negative questions, which lead to disempowering assumptions, which lead to you not believing you can reach your goals. What do you think the answers would be to the negative questions in the example I just gave you?
There is a mechanism that records and reflects your subconscious beliefs. that mechanism is called your life.
The answers would be things showing up in your life that reflect the disempowering questions you’ve been unconsciously asking. For example, if you’ve been unknowingly asking, Why am I so unhappy? the answers will show up as you being unhappy, no matter how many good things happen to you.
If you’ve been unconsciously asking, Why don’t I have enough money? the answers will show up as your lack of money, no matter how hard or how long you work.
And if you’ve been unwittingly asking, Why can’t I lose weight? the answer will show up as your not being able to lose weight, no matter how many diet and exercise programs you try.
Here’s a chart to show you what I mean:
| What You’ve Been Unconsciously Asking (Your Disempowering Assumptions) | How It Shows Up In Your Life |
| Why am I so unhappy? | You are unhappy most of the time. |
| Why am I so broke? | You find a way to not have money, even when money comes in. |
| Why can’t I lose weight? | You find it hard to lose weight, no matter what you try. |
| Why can’t I do anything right? | You focus on what you do wrong and ignore all the things you do right. |
I call these dassumptions—a portmanteau of disempowering and assumptions. When you carry around these dassumptions, your life becomes a reflection of them. That’s why all of the goal setting in the world won’t work when this is the case—because you simply don’t believe that you can reach your goals in the first place.
Reversing the Curse
When you do Step Two of The Afformations Method, you will take what has been unconscious (hidden) and make it conscious (visible), and in the process turn beliefs that have been negative (disempowering) into ones that are positive (empowering).
Let’s reverse all the negative questions we’ve just looked at. They now would look something like this:
These questions may seem unfamiliar (even downright bizarre!) to you right now. But what if, just for a moment, you let yourself accept those questions as being true for you?
Wouldn’t you have a life that’s different from the average person’s—a life that’s different from the one you have now?
Your Quality of Life Depends on Just These Two Things
The quality of your life depends on just two things: the quality of your communication with the world inside of you, and the quality of your communication with the world outside of you.
The quality of your life depends on just two things: the quality of your communication with the world inside of you, and the quality of your communication with the world outside of you.
When you follow Step Two, you will begin to change the quality of communication with the world inside of you. You will begin to ask yourself empowering questions and stop asking yourself disempowering ones.
Then, if you follow the remaining steps in The Afformations Method, you will start to change the quality of communication with the world outside of you. This is the fastest, most effective way I’ve ever seen to change the quality of your communication with both your inside and outside worlds and thereby change your life.
For example, I got this e-mail from a client in England named Kaisha:
Dear Noah,
Once again, I have to say thank you!
I have been afforming for 18 months now, but I never used them on money until I read one of your recent online updates.
I was scared I might lose my home if I didn’t earn more money. I afformed, Why have I doubled my income?
It’s less than a month, and my sales figures have tripled. Thank you!
I wrote to Kaisha a short time later to congratulate her and ask if I could share her story. Her reply:
Of course! Just add that I have just been offered a new job at double my current salary!
Why Ask Why?
One of the most common questions I’m asked about Afformations is, “Why do they all start with the word why?” Good question!
Two basic forces govern human behavior: the why and the how. The why is your motive for doing something. The how is your method of doing it.
I often ask my coaching clients, seminar audiences, and mastermind students the following question: Which do you think is more powerful, the why or the how?
To answer that question, let me ask you another one: have you ever noticed that you can know how to do something, but never actually do it?
For example, there are hundreds of things you could do right now that you choose not to—run down the street naked, hug a cactus, or pick a fight with Chuck Norris (please don’t try any of these!).
You have the how of doing these things (meaning you could do them if you wanted to), but you don’t have the why of doing them (meaning you really don’t want to do them).
Therefore, motive always trumps method, which means the why always trumps the how—and that is why Afformations start with the word why.
There’s another reason Afformations start with why. Let’s say you afform, Why am I so rich? Your mind immediately seeks to answer the question, which means you actually force it to focus on all the things you have.
But what if you were to ask yourself the question, “How did I get so rich?” Your mind would most likely be stumped, because you’re asking it to discover the method by which you got rich before you believe you actually are. It would probably reply with something like, “What are you talking about? I don’t know.”
The why always trumps the how.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with how questions. When you’re trying to accomplish any goal, you definitely need to know how to do it.
The problem is that your mind can often get stuck on the how of doing something. For example, if you keep asking yourself, “How did I do this?” and “How did I do that?” it does not activate the embedded presupposition factor of your brain as Afformations do.
In short: Afformations are a specific form of empowering question that start with the word why. When you ask questions that assume that what you want is already true, you will activate that part of your brain that will seek to make it so. And that is what will unleash your hidden power to take action and change your life.
The Essence of Afformations
At its essence, Step Two of The Afformations Method is to ask yourself: “Why is [what I want] true in my life now?”
Why does this work? Because of your brain’s embedded presupposition factor: when you ask a question, either internally or externally, your brain is wired to search for the answer. You can ask disempowering questions, or you can ask empowering ones. The choice is yours.
Here’s What I Want You to Do Now
1. Go through your list you wrote for what you want in the Ten Major Areas of Life from Step One. You did do this, right? If not, go back and do it now. You have to know where you want to go if you want to get there!
2. Take what you want in each area and form an empowering question that assumes that what you want is already true or has already happened. For example, if what you want is to lose 20 pounds by a certain date, then your Afformation might be: Why did I lose 20 pounds by [date]?
If what you want is to bring in more money for your business, your Afformation could be: Why did I start bringing in more money for my business?
If you want to overcome a bad habit—for example, quit smoking—you can afform: Why is it so easy for me to quit smoking?
3. Study Part III of this book for specific Afformations to use in each Area of Life for your specific situation. I’ll give you hundreds of examples of empowering Afformations in Part III. You’ll notice that there are many different forms of empowering questions that will work for many different situations. Here’s what I mean:
Because there are an infinite number of questions you can ask, use these examples as starting points for your own new, empowering Afformations.
Now let’s go to the all-important, not-to-be-missed Step Three of The Afformations Method!