What do you think is the difference between a normal person and a champion? Let’s say somebody like Roger Federer or Lewis Hamilton?

Well, you could argue that there are many differences: talent, genetics, luck, excellent coaching, 10,000 hours + of practice, etc, etc.

The above are all likely to be true, but I believe that the main thing that underpins all of them is their powerful psyche. The intangible aspects such as mindset, winning beliefs, and their ability to overcome obstacles and navigate their way through adversity.

A champions attitude isn’t developed over night, it’s a life long process that starts from a young age and continues to blossom with hard work, practice and persistence. That said it doesn’t matter what age you start you can always drastically improve your life, you just have to know how and have a burning desire to make it happen!

Now, I understand that not everybody wants to be a high level athlete or CEO businessman, but I bet that 95% of you reading this article would like to improve in at least one aspect of your life?

And that’s exactly why i’ve written this post. I’m going to be discussing the power of ‘positive affirmations’ and how they can change your life, body shape and fitness if used correctly…

Same Thoughts Same Results…

In order to be successful and transform your body you need to re-program your mind. There are many ways to do this: hypnosis, meditation, private coaching, etc, etc but one of the things that has helped me the most and which has been proven to work is ‘positive affirmations’…

The Radio Station In Your Head…

Have you ever noticed the voice inside of your head? If you pay attention it’s pretty much speaking all the time, it judges, reminds you to go to work, to eat, watch your favourite tv program, and about a gazillion other things that you need to do each day. It’s literally like a radio station that’s on in the background all day long.

95% of this self talk is preprogrammed, in fact we spend most of the day on autopilot, doing the same things we did yesterday, and thinking similar if not the same thoughts.

If your radio station is positive and makes you feel good then you will achieve the things you want, you feel joyous and life is exciting, full of opportunities. If however your mind is negative all of the time: making excuses, complaining, feeling sorry for yourself, etc – then you’re pretty much doomed lol!

The truth is that most people tend to have a mixture of positive and negative thoughts/feelings. These thoughts/feelings are typically triggered by external events, for example…

• When we get paid we feel good. When we are skint we feel miserable.
• Our friend gives us a compliment about how good we look and we feel good, but then someone say’s we look fat and we feel bad.

When we live life like this we are not in control of our own happiness. Our happiness only happens when everything goes to plan. The trouble is life doesn’t always go to plan! Anybody can be positive and happy when things go well, but what about when things don’t go to plan?

If you’re like the majority, it’s literally like being on a rollercoaster ride, where one minute you’re up and the next crashing down. The trouble is that if you just let your mind be as it is, it will continue to give you the same results.

With positive affirmations the aim is to be able to make yourself feel good, regardless of what’s happening in your external environment. Imagine you had a switch that you could press in your head which could make you feel instantly powerful and good about yourself? Well with lots of practice you can…

What are positive Affirmations?

An affirmation is a statement. It’s something we say to ourselves that re-affirms what we believe. If you pay attention you will notice that you say affirmations all the time…

“I’ll never lose weight’

“what’s the point’

“i’m a good parent”

“I have a great life”

Like I mentioned earlier in the post, most people tend to have a mixture of thoughts, feelings and affirmations which they repeat. They become so deeply embedded that we don’t even questions them after a while – they just become our reality.

The aim of positive affirmations is to plant positive seeds (thoughts) in your head about what you want to attract into your life. You basically repeat statements in your head until they become fully embedded and you believe them.

Affirmations with positive intentions have the power to drastically improve your life. Often when you’ve had a belief which has been reinforced for years it feels like it’s hard to change. You could say affirmations like “i’m a champion” or “I can lose weight easily” but you wont believe them because you havent conditioned yourself to believe them.

The key with affirmations is to say what you want, whether you believe it to be true or not. Over time if you repeat your positive statements you will start to believe them as true.

In one of the most successful business/mindset books of all time, Napoleon Hill’s book Think & Grow Rich goes into great detail about reprogramming the mind with empowering affirmations. I would highly recommend picking up the book – buy here

Putting Affirmations Into Practice…

1) Write down 10 affirmations that mean a lot to you, things that you want to attract into your life for example…

“I am a strong, fit individual”

“I’m committed to being the best version of me every single day”

“I will work hard and get the results I desire”

“I am committed to becoming better every single day”

Make them relevant and meaningful to you.

2) Repeat your 10 affirmations as soon as you wake up and just before you go to bed. Read through your statements 5x in a row, from start to finish. This adds up to 50 reps in the morning and 50 at night (100 positive statements each day).

If you want to repeat them more often that’s fine. I’ll often repeat mine at lunch time and because I know them off by heart, I will also use in other situations i.e. on my walk to the gym or before one of my personal training sessions.

Thanks for reading,

Nick

P.S, If you enjoyed this post and learned a thing or two you may want to check out these posts too…

5 THINGS I WOULD TELL MY YOUNGER SELF…

MASTERING YOUR EMOTIONS : THE KEY TO BODY TRANSFORMATION…