Try This Rewiring Tip

See it, feel it, visualize it.

This is called an affirmation, and you will hear it being used by those who wish to tell themselves there is a path to success, and each phrase has meaning to them. We go into great detail in the Power of Consistency course, revealing why this is so important. And it all starts with your expectations.

Good Enough

There is a famous example from 1990s television. In a Saturday Night Live sketch, a recurring character named Stuart Smalley looks in the mirror and repeats affirmations. He opens and closes each sketch with “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” Between these bookends he’s often quirky and outlandish, which makes the character even funnier and adored. The point is that affirmations can be used to visualize an outcome before even taking the first step to get there.

You have to begin by expecting great things, and then condition the neural pathways in your brain. It’s very important. You will almost never arrive at success in life accidentally. Putting purpose to your thoughts kicks off your journey, and reassuring yourself is, at the very least, a great step along the way. And repetition is crucial to forming any habit; this is no exception.

What Gets Us Through

If you’ve ever been afraid of bugs, but you know you have to step over one or be near one, you may have found yourself repeating, “Nothing bad will happen” over and over until you’ve arrived at the other side of the room. It’s that self-talk that we need in order to make it through whatever problem we’re facing or whatever goal we want to achieve. It comes in many forms and phrases, all with the same idea – to arrive somewhere better than you are at the moment.

It’s easy to parody this in film or TV with a scene of a person in an office cubicle with a poster on the wall. The poster shows a cat dangling from a limb with the caption, “Hang In There, Baby!” (The poster has been around since 1971 and has a fascinating origin story.) But the “Hang in There” adage is an affirmation that whatever struggle you’re going through, there is light at the end of the tunnel, although it’s hard to see now in the midst of uncertainty. It’s a visual reminder that helps the struggling person get through the day, the presentation, or the meeting.

Some of the ones we use in our industry include:

• I expect awesome results on every call.
• I take the time to build strong relationships with my homeowners.
• I consistently set excellent service calls.
• I listen, ask questions, and have empathy for my homeowners.

The sayings are not only uplifting words; they sometimes include reminders or instructions. “I listen to my homeowners” is a reminder to do just that, even though it’s in the back of our minds already. The affirmation brings it to the front, especially if it becomes difficult to focus or listen during the actual call. Seeing it written nearby helps bring us back to the goal.

The Hidden Key

It may seem silly to some people, but it isn’t silly at all to the people who practice it. They will preach about its benefits. Even though it may sound like having written affirmations doesn’t fit your personality, stop and ask someone why they use them next time it catches your eye. They may state they also thought it was beneath them at first, until they tried it wholeheartedly. It’s a focal point of success for countless public speakers and prosperous businessmen.

I was sitting in a prison cell 30 years ago when I began to notice these affirmations and positive thoughts written in places that seemed to hold no hope. They seemed so out of place. But they completely changed my life. I slowly began to understand their subliminal power. And before long, I found myself mentally outside of these prison bars. It was subliminal in the best way, the way that made me change my entire mindset.

I began visualizing how my best life would look after my confinement was over. But the key to it all was the affirmations I kept telling myself with years still remaining on my sentence. If I was going to turn everything around, my self-talk would have to be so strong that it overcame the mundane and difficult struggle of my daily imprisoned life. I had tunnel vision of a new life, and boy did it work.

Knowing Where You’re Going

My formula included this: the right attitude + the right expectations + conditioning the subconscious mind. And it helped me become a free man and pushed me to become completely reformed.

To be without hope is, to me, the same as being without water in the desert.

By the way, affirmations really come in handy when dealing with irate customers, especially on the phone. We’ll cover this in detail in a future article or series. And it involves more than a mere script of what dialogue to use when someone calls.

Affirmations are much more than just flowery words. Contrary to what some might think, they are not just for females, for newbies, or for mere dreamers. They are more than that.

Affirmations are medicine.

And as much as we might not like taking medicine, it helps us more than we know. So make affirmations part of your professional and personal life.

And just so you know… You are good enough, you are smart enough, and doggone it, people like you.