25 Purposeful Affirmations for Founders to Seek Holiday Joy

The holiday cheer spectrum is extremely wide from people who thrive off of all of the joy and happiness and those, like me, who experience stress and overwhelm (outward and inward) due to childhood trauma and other triggers.?

If this sounds like you, it’s ok, you are not alone.?

And then place on top of all of this the stress of being a founder, scaling a startup, leading a tech & biz team towards greatness, and managing investor expectations while hanging mistletoe or lighting candles for Hannukah. Then, it feels like you are running into heightened milestones and the need to get to inflection points to start the next year off with a bang. Yikes! This is all overwhelming.

Mindset over matter will help you find the cheer in yourself and in others, making for a more joyous season. Seeking and finding joy seems trivial, but it’s a positive perspective that most have to work towards, it’s at the core of happiness (highly recommend The Happiness Project) and we live in a world that is filled with fear, anger, anxiety, a rushed timeline, and FOMO. ‘Tis the season.?

Affirmations have the power to motivate you to act on your goals, get unblocked, help you concentrate during times of upheaval or uncertainty, focus on achieving your startup goals, give you the power to change your negative thinking patterns and replace them with positive thinking patterns.?

For me, personally, affirmations are my prayers, my gratitude to my faith, to God for guiding me and always having a plan for me. God created the universe and is in control of it; in control of my entire life and all I do. I humbly place my entire life at His feet every day. However, I do need words (like as if I am touching the words in felt to make them real)? to help me stay on task in the minutia with His masterful & beautiful plan for my life, between prayers. For my Christian entrepreneurs, is there any place in the Christian life for positive affirmations? I believe there is a place in the Christian life for positive affirmations, especially when they are not self-centered and continue their reliance on God every day. Even in the bible, the prayer of Jabez (1 Chronicles 4: 9-10), is a bold affirmation & God granted the request. Pray continually. Affirmations can help us grow in faith and reliance on God's goodness and bring awareness to God’s grace in the world. These affirmations I created are centered around this premise.?

I stay positive & reliant on God through prayer.

What are positive affirmations?

Positive affirmations are positive phrases or statements you speak and repeat to yourself (silently or out loud) that promote or shift your mind towards a positive perspective to change behavior patterns for increased purpose in your life. Positive affirmations are typically spoken and/or written daily in order to improve your way of thinking to help you believe in what you’re capable of achieving or overcoming. Most people speak affirmations every morning as they are getting ready for their day or in the evening to end positively before going to bed. These affirmations can be written on a note card and placed in a location where they will be seen daily, or they might be written in a journal. I place mine taped to my mirror so that I can say them when I am getting ready in the morning (or mid-morning after a couple of zoom calls).?

Affirmations can especially help with:

• Breaking habits towards positive changes (even if they are micro-changes)
• Shaping new healthier behaviors
• Engaging positive thoughts to cling to the good
• Encouraging outlooks toward a positive and purposeful future

A famous parody on Saturday Night Live exemplified how some people view positive affirmations. Smalley looked in the mirror telling himself, “I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And doggone it, people like me!”. This might be seen as silly, but science shows they work.?

How Positive Affirmations Really Work.?

As a recovering scientist (biochemistry & molecular biology), I research the science behind all I do. You might be asking, do affirmations work scientifically? In short, yes, positive affirmations do work to improve mental health & agility while being backed m by concrete science. The concept of self-affirmation isn’t by any means complex or far-fetched. Positive affirmations are statements or phrases that, when repeated daily, especially in the right context for the person saying them (like affirmations made for a startup founder said out loud by a startup founder - a direct hint about how the below list was created), can help channel positive thoughts and actions, dispelling negative ones. This repeatable structure can also boost self-confidence, help get to new personal development goals and focus on re-wiring. What I mean is the concept of neuroplasticity, which is the ability to rewire the brain.

Studies prove that positive affirmations help activate parts of the brain that are associated with self-related processing and reward. The same studies also indicate that positive affirmations can help build or restore self-competence. Other studies show that self-affirmations activate brain systems associated with self-related processing and reward, allowing individuals to reflect on sources of self-worth, such as core values

The 25 Purposeful Holiday Affirmations for Founders?

The ultimate goal of these holiday affirmations is to evolve your posture as a startup founder in simple ways for a big change. These affirmations are short and sweet, yet can have a huge impact on your holiday mindset and experience. I envisioned the ultimate founder needing a bit of a boost while staying up late after the family finishes peppermint hot chocolates to finish financial projections or a biz dev project and getting up early before the cinnamon rolls are baked to continue investor due diligence inquiries. These have been handcrafted and prayed over by me for your hearts, coming from so many meetings I have had with founders who needed one or many of these.?

1. My innovation is uniquely & wonderfully made
2. I am leading a team with purpose
3. I attract values-aligned investors
4. I am in the right zone for my own success
5. I am grateful for my abilities and gifts
6. My empathy is a strength
7. I focus on positive progress
8. I am seen & heard as a founder
9. I find joy in the journey
10. I free myself of limiting beliefs
11. My success is influenced by my actions
12. I bless my team with opportunities to flourish
13. I honor the hustle that got me where I am
14. I flourish
15. I will make memories
16. My life is improved through purpose
17. I am thankful for this present moment
18. I let go of things that I cannot control
19. I am a person of great worth in my startup ecosystem
20. I will create moments of cheer with my existing investors
21. My happiness, hopes & needs as a founder are important
22. I will not allow the stress & anxiety of this season to control me
23. I believe in presence & perseverance over presents
24. I have permission to rest & restore
25. My energy embodies a purposeful positive startup spirit

Scientists have proven that saying positive affirmations consistently works. Try it out. It won’t hurt, it will only help. Holidays are hard, and as a founder, you have to find any way, any hack to ride the journey less bumpy and with more joy. I wish you JOY and HOPE and LOVE this holiday season.?

#mentalhealth?

#affirmations?