The Six Most Impactful Lessons I Learnt from My 30 Days “I Am” Affirmations Challenge
“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” — Ps 139:14
I can go out on a limb to say I am not alone with the need for a change of scene. Or at least to have that feeling of going to work, closing and getting back home. The idea of working from home has turned into a living-at-work phenomenon. We have gone from talking about work-life balance to balancing life at work.
What was I expecting after a 10KMs drive to a public library? It was closed. I went out to look for answers within the pages of books, but I returned with questions in my head. How will we come out of this the pandemic? Will we look back at this whole lockdown period as wasted time or quality time? In my view, that depends on what we are becoming. Are we using this time to build up, or deviate from, the identity that we want for ourselves?
“What you become is more important than what you get.” — Jim Rohn
I did not like whom I was becoming at the start of the lockdown — lazy, unhealthy and clumsy. I was procrastinating on my writing, developing poor eating habits and putting off exercise. Luckily, I caught myself before the bad habits piled to irreversible levels. This consciousness is what led me to come up with a 30-days challenge to myself which I shared on Facebook and Medium for my followers to join. You can read about the “challenge” here and do it for any consecutive 30 days that you choose.
If there is power in the spoken word, then we must be conscious of what we tell ourselves. That is what I set out to do — tell myself each morning for 30 days whom I want to become in my faith, family, finances, fitness and fun. With the exercise done and dusted, I know it was worth it. It helped me reinforce some disciplines and a renewed belief in myself, backed up by some valuable lessons that I learnt along the way.
Here are the seven most impactful lessons that I learned:
1) Not everyone will catch on to your vision
“We are the people that we’ve been waiting for, and no one else is coming.” — Bishop T D Jakes
The blog post that contained the 30-days challenge got 103 reads on Medium with almost 40% read rate. I was sure that the challenge would attract a sizeable number of participants. Guess what?
Only one of my readers made it from start to end with me. But I did not relent or quit. I would have done it, even if no else came on the journey.
2) You can make a difference one person at a time
“As one person, I cannot change the world, but I can change the world of one person.” — Paul Shane Spear
There were days when I felt like giving up on the challenge. After all, no one else was doing it with me. But I was doing this for me. I was the one who needed motivation. I found that motivation in the one person who kept up with the challenge. More than once, I left like throwing in the towel, but then the Facebook notification of that one post will spur me to continue.
Do not stop what you are doing because you never know who you may be inspiring.
3) Give your best to an audience of one or one thousand
“The size of your audience doesn’t matter. What’s important is that your audience is listening.” — Randy Pausch
In as much as I set out the do the challenge to build myself up, I wanted to inspire others to do the same. To start each day with the right mindset, priming our subconscious mind with an affirmation of whom we want to become.
Of the over 40 people who read the post, and the many more who liked it on Facebook, only one person took up the challenge. But, I did not stop or become careless just because it was one person.
I gave the performance I would have given if the audience was one thousand, ten thousand or a hundred thousand.
4) Consistency is the key to achieving results
“Step by step, and the thing is done.” — Charles Atlas
Although I had set out my posts I advance, it was still a struggle in the beginning. I still had work to do before I could check the goal of my list. Well into the second week, I found it much easier because I had built the momentum. Tiny steps, small acts every day breeds the disciple to success. If I had procrastinated for only a day, it would have turned into two days missed. And that would have been that.
If you want to become an author, write consistently. If you want to become an athlete, practice daily. If you want to earn a degree, study regularly.
5) We believe what we tell ourselves, and we become what we believe
“ Our mind is a mental factory. Whatever you think about all day long pours ingredients into this mental factory and that’s what builds the social, economic, financial fabric of your life. As you think, so you become. — Jim Rohn
What we tell ourselves influences what we think about in our minds. And what we think about is who we become eventually.
I found that adding affirmations to my other morning routines set me up for a productive day. The words build self-confidence, and the self-confidence determines my focus which informs my actions. Those actions reinforce confidence, thus creating a confidence loop.
6) Having a system is critical to achieving your goals
“Goals are good for setting direction, but systems are best for making progress.” — James Clear (Atomic Habits)
30 “I am” affirmations each day — that was the goal.
A week before June 1, 2020, I came up with 21 affirmations, sorted under the first three categories of faith, family and finances. Then, I used the next three weeks to plan out the remaining nine affirmations carefully.
I would not have been able to achieve my goal without that system in place. I would have failed during the days when I was late in posting my affirmation.
I have used the lesson on my workout routine. My goal was to drop my weight to 85KG and stay fit. The experience was like a yo-yo until I switched my focus from checking my weight every morning to building a system of working out every evening with a preset plan of activities 30 days ahead. This reading cannot be correct, I said. Maybe it is the floor. I repositioned the electronic scale, stood up and gazed in amazement when the counter stop, for the third time, at 83.2 KG. That is the lightest I have been in two years. My workouts do not feel like a chore any more. The system has helped me build a healthy habit which was my day 24 affirmation — I AM HEALTHY!
Get hold of your vision and run with it. Not for the applause but for the difference it will make, even if to the life of one. And for what it will make of you to go after it.
Small, consistent actions each day are the key to massive success. Therefore, build a system that will keep you moving towards your goal, one step, one day at a time.
“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game.” — James Clear
Here are my 30 affirmations to inspire to come up with yours:
1) I am a child of God
2) Blessed
3) Winner
4) am a victor
5) Enough
6) Grateful
7) Fearfully and wonderfully made
8) Provider
9) Protector
10) Generous
11) Thoughtful
12) Confident
13) Extraordinary
14) Happy
15) An entrepreneur
16) A Blessing
17) Prosperous
18) Productive
19) Able
20) Fruitful
21) Powerful
22) Strong
23) Fearless
24) Healthy
25) Resilient
26) Courageous
27) Adaptable
28) Excited about the future
29) I am in perfect balance and harmony
30) I am valuable
