I am loved.
And I deserve to be loved.
I will be treated with respect.
I am a great candidate for this job.
I can add value to any company.
I will enjoy this interview, I will answer the questions directly, with confidence, and I will leave the interviewer with clear, compelling reasons to want to offer me this position.
Life is beautiful.
I am in control of my future, and I will succeed.
I deserve to be successful, and happy.
I strongly encourage you, if you haven't already, to write down your favorite, most compelling affirmations ... concise statements which affirm important truths about you, your values, and your life … and post them where you’re likely to see them regularly.
Choose affirmations which are reminders of things you actually believe.
No, not things you feel.
Things you know.
The value of affirmations is that they serve as reminders and reinforcers of important TRUTHS.*
Yes, you DO, in fact, deserve to be loved. (I’ve yet to meet a single decent person who doesn't.)
Yes, you CAN add value to any company. (You've done it before, whether modestly or magnificently, and you will do it again.)
Yes, you ARE in control of your future. (Where you are RIGHT NOW is a result of the choices you've made up 'til this point ... and tomorrow will be a result of what you do today.)
These are undeniable truths ... which, none-the-less, often feel, in the moment, like they aren't so true after all.
There's a lot of complications … a lot of "yeah, but's" … to many of our beliefs about ourselves and the world. Yeah, I deserve to be happy … but I often fall short of being the best I can be, so do I really deserve happiness? (Hint: yes, you do!)
The ability to think twice, to introspect, to judge our own actions, is important. As good as we are, we are still capable of errors, missteps, failures, falling short, and we need information and feedback about our performance, to motivate us to improve.
But it's too easy to awfulize. To over-generalize. To second-guess ourselves. To lose confidence in ourselves, or in our relationship with the world out there.
Knowing your affirmations ... your top ten (or more) important truths ... can help you remain rational, objective, effective, powerful, confident, serene.
So, make that list!**
And whatever you may FEEL in any given moment, call upon (and act on) what you KNOW to be true. (Don't worry ... your feelings will catch up!)
My personal Top Ten Affirmations, at the moment:
1. I am part of the miracle.***
2. Nobody has more of a right to be here, on Earth, right now, than me.
3. I am not the world's policeman. I need not be, should not be, and cannot be.****
4. I am much, much larger than anything I am going through.
5. I can summon focus, energy, and enthusiasm, any time I need to.
6. I am the screenwriter, the director, the producer, and the star of this play.
7. I am an ordinary man ... producing extraordinary results.
8. I am healthy, strong, vibrant, able to take action toward my values.
9. If anybody can do it, I can.
10. I am deeply grateful, enormously happy, and very excited, simply to be alive.
* Yes, affirmations can be aspirational ... "I will be a multi-millionaire" ... "I am a movie star". But "fake it 'til you make it" is simply ... faking. And after a while, fakery … lying to oneself … becomes all too obvious, and such affirmations lose their motivational power.
For every superstar who found that, "telling myself I'm the Greatest Of All Time is what led me to become the GOAT!" there's a thousand people for whom that strategy simply became a lie to oneself, one more reason to feel disappointed, deflated, guilty, depressed.
** And reconsider your list, every now and then, to insure it’s still empowering. For an absolutely absurdly ginormous list of thousands of affirmations from which to harvest ideas, see: https://motivationping.com/affirmations
*** As I've said many times, “we are surrounded by miracles, not least of which is ourselves.” No, not supernatural miracles, but an overwhelming, almost impossible abundance of magnificent achievements, dazzling products, endless services, boundless opportunities, information, technology, art, entertainment and more, values conceived by people, produced by people in a modern division-of-labor society ... a bounty unattainable and inconceivable on a deserted island ... and here we are, smack dab in the middle of it. And you and I are part of the miracle.
**** Treat people, not as they deserve to be treated, but as you deserve to treat them. Sometimes, that's the same thing. Often, it's not. You have no responsibility to sacrifice yourself to try to right every wrong ever committed ... not even the wrongs committed against yourself … not at the expense of your own joy and values. Sometimes, the greatest punishment you can inflict on those who've done you wrong is to walk away, and deprive them of ... YOU. The people you love are important, and deserve your time, attention, energy and resources ... the people you don't love, don't.