Actually, I’m not recommending that when practicing daily positive affirmations that you need to literally wash your mouth out with soap – I’m just using the expression figuratively. Allow me to explain further.

You’ve probably heard the expression used when someone, usually a child, is overhead uttering profanity. And the reason why I’m using the expression here is because so many times people tell me that they are practicing daily positive affirmations but 99% of what comes out of their mouth is negative.

If you have a conversation with these individuals they are constantly putting themselves down and saying what they aren’t good at. They are quick to list their faults and quick at identifying what’s wrong with their lives.

What they don’t seem to realise is that every time they put themselves down or ‘highlight’ what they don’t like about their life, they are affirming what they don’t want in their lives. And they are negating any of the positive effects of their practice of positive affirmations.

“You will never, ever amass enough power to accomplish your goals and your dreams if you are constantly weakening yourself.”

James Arthur Ray, Author of “Harmonic Wealth”

Plus, when you listen to these individuals, their negative self-talk is always done in a very matter-of-fact manner because it’s what they truly believe about themselves. But when they say their positive affirmations you can bet that same degree of matter-of-factness is most definitely absent. So they sabotage their efforts to create positive change in two ways:

1. They don’t clean up their act regarding their self-talk, and
2. They do not fully commit to their positive affirmations.

With respect to the latter when you practice your affirmations you have to practice them as though they are completely true even though they may not be as yet. Now I can sense that you have doubts about this. Then understand this – the negative things you say about yourself may be true now but were not always the case. You developed limiting beliefs and practiced negative affirmations for so long that they become fact.

The actor Cary Grant said,

“I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.”

And he also said,

“Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.”

In other words he was practicing a role that he wanted, enjoyed and liked. You can do the same. You are the director and leading actor in this movie which, incidentally, is called “This is Your Life”.

I can hear you say,

“But the fact is…”

Forget the facts! As Patricia Shambrook said,

“Don’t give me the facts, give me the truth. The facts are always changing.”

And the truth is you were born as close to perfection as anything can be. The majority of your limiting and negative beliefs were learnt and they were ingrained into you through repetition.

It’s time for change.

You can re-program your mind for the life you desire. And ironically, you can achieve this through repetition as well but the through the repetition of what you want.

And so you have to stay in character. You can’t practice daily positive affirmations at a set time of day and then for the rest of the day trash yourself with your negative self-talk.

But you may have to take baby steps. For instance, if you say to yourself “I’m hopeless at managing money” you may want to practice saying “I’m getting better at managing money” until you feel confident enough to practice the affirmation “I’m an excellent money manager”.

It is not expected that you monitor your thoughts and self-talk every moment of the day but do regularly check in to what you’re saying. You can also ask your close friends to help you with this exercise and a coach will certainly pick up on any negative self-talk because it’s amazing at how oblivious some people can be to this. And, if all else fails, keep a bar of soap handy for when you hear that trashy, profane negative self-talk coming from your mouth.