Affirming the Power of Affirmations

Many people at the beginnings of their career would agree that attempting to build up their working life from scratch can be, to say the least, daunting. You might not be sure of what you want to do, you might doubt your own skills, or you might be low on physical or financial resources. Heaven only knows that there are plenty of obstacles to overcome, especially in the early stages.

Believe me, I can relate to this. I myself have come from a background of overwhelming self-esteem issues, a breath-taking lack of social skills, and virtually non-existent social skills. When I stood at the foot of the mountain metaphorically representing my soon-to-begin career, I had no idea of what to do, nor did I believe I was capable of achieving it, nor did I believe I deserved it anyway.

This is why, for anyone who has previously faced or currently does face issues of this kind, I'd like to recommend a tool which probably exists on the radar of familiarity with most people: the tool of affirmation.

Like I say, my main issue was a fundamental lack of self-esteem. It was a self-perpetuating cycle, in which my lack of self-belief prevented me from taking action, and my lack of action left me with nothing to believe in. It was a challenging mindset to try and get out of, as I'm sure most people with similar issues would agree.

That's why, in terms of career, I had to begin at the absolute downmost bottom of the pile, in order to work my way up professionally and personally. This was the only conceivable way for me to build up any kind of discernible career, and a sense of self-esteem. Now, after a number of years, I like to think I've gone some way to achieve both.

In all my career projects, most of which have involved business administration of some kind, I've had obstacles to face. I've had challenging customers, difficult team dynamics, practical issues (like a global pandemic), and many other issues, requiring me to find some way to overcome these problems and succeed in my career.

This led me to the helpful tool I mentioned earlier, affirmation. This is the phenomenon of deciding a positive statement or mantra, which summarises what you want to achieve or embody. It could be something as basic as, "I'm a decent person", "I'm a hard worker", or "I deserve success". By taking these assertions and repeating to yourself, over and over, you'll find these sentiments ingraining themselves on your way of thinking. This will enable you to incorporate these attitudes into your daily life and the living of it, achieving whatever positive result you'd aspired towards in the first place.

And that's a basic summary of how affirmation works. For someone with such low self-esteem as what I once had, when I started using this technique, the benefits were immediate, obvious and positive. The successes I've found are due in no small part to the reminders I've set myself through affirmation, that actually, I do deserve success, and I am capable of achieving it. If I can do it, coming from the dull and uninspiring background that I did, then it's absolutely possible for absolutely anyone.

In times of hardship, this is when affirmation is most important and helpful. These are the times when we are most likely to forget our self-worth and capabilities, and therefore the times when we most need to remind ourselves. By practising affirmation during good times in our lives, it will feel like a natural habit during bad times, which in turn will make those bad times slightly easier to face and deal with.

Obviously, affirmation alone won't magically cause our problems to vanish or immediately resolve. Affirmation needs to be connected to action, both of which need to feed into and support each other. By making this connection between the goals set by our affirmations, and the actions which enable us to accomplish those goals, then the process will come naturally, as long as we practice over time. It's the same as all habits, in that it might not instantly work and it might feel strange at first, but continued application will surely lead to good results.

For career achievements and personal growth, affirmation is a great tool to help. To anyone considering how to get ahead and make progress, I'll always recommend giving this a shot.