Speak Life- The Importance Of Affirmations And Encouragement

I am not the “give everybody a trophy” kind of person and sometimes I think that is what affirmations is made out to be, however, it’s not what they are. It’s a positive assertion, a pronouncement. Remember the phrase “you are what you think”? This is saying that life stems from your thoughts. Keyword- stems from. Those thoughts then turn into words, which eventually become actions.

Power in Words

There’s a proverb in the Bible- “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Proverbs 18:21 Hence the importance of “speak life.”

What all of this means is that we have to be very careful with our words, choosing to speak only those which work towards our benefit and cultivate our highest good. The word affirmation comes from the Latin affirmare, originally meaning “to make steady, strengthen.”

What all of this means is that we have to be very careful with our words, choosing to speak only those which work towards our benefit and cultivate our highest good. Click To Tweet

You may have heard the phrase “your perception is your reality.” There’s an interesting article on Medium about perception and how it creates your reality. It boils down to this- what you think does affect your ability and how you perceive things. What you think, doesn’t stay shut up in your brain, it becomes what you speak and then how you act.

I’ve known absolutely brilliant people who were paralyzed by the idea that they weren’t good enough. The would constantly speak about how they weren’t good enough. Here’s something very important that people have to understand about being good enough and it’s a Rocky Balboa quote:

“If you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth”

You’ve got to know your worth in order for other people to know you’re worth. If you think you’re worth $3 an hour, there’s some cheap-o willing to pay you just that for a job that may be worth $15 an hour. There’s nothing wrong or bad about acknowledging that you are a hard worker and that you put all of your energy into something to get the job done.

Affirmations For Kids And Adults

We recently did a school project where we put affirmations and encouraging quotes on bathroom stalls at a local elementary school. My hope is that it encourages and lifts up a kid when they are having a rough day, or when they just need to be reminded that they are capable of amazing things.

Affirmations aren’t just for kids though. Adults need them also. Our brains and our thoughts play a part in our health and success. There’s an article- Ruining My Day that has a great look at how we look at ourselves and life.

Here are some of my favorite affirmations and encouraging quotes:

I understand if you’re a little skeptical reading this, but when you stop and think about the correlation of your thoughts and words in how your life is you can see the connection. There’s an article “Why Affirmations Are Important To Your Health And Happiness” that talks even more about it.

Can you think of one successful person that says “I’m not worth what they are paying me” or “I’m really not smart”?

Speak Life

I love the quote above from Muhammed Ali. He spoke life. He spoke that he was the greatest and worked hard and pushed himself to show he was the greatest. You know what? It stuck. He is still thought of as one of the greatest boxers in history.

There’s an old quote from NFL player Maurice Jones-Drew “You may be bigger, You may be stronger, But your WILL is not as great as mine.”

Understanding Failure Is Not The End Or Bad

These are the things that we ourselves need to remember and that we also need to remind our children of too. Failing at something is inevitable. What you do with that lesson is what counts.