Autosuggestion, currently more commonly referred to as self-hypnosis, is the act of influencing your subconscious by changing your self-talk.
Napoleon Hill wrote, “There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge. Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.”
His theory is your subconscious thoughts influence your results. If your self-talk is negative (you’re so stupid, you’ll never get out of debt, you can’t land that client) then your results will be negative as well.
However, if you focus your subconscious mind on your “burning desire” you can achieve it. You may have also heard this referred to as “the Law of Attraction”.
Although what your subconscious mind says to you about your goals is for the most part, well … subconscious, you can consciously change the channel of your mind to a more positive one through autosuggestion.
In my previous post about Faith, I noted Hill’s suggestion of using an affirmation to convince yourself that you have faith in your ability to achieve your Burning Desire. Affirmations are part of the process of autosuggestion.
Affirmations alone will not help you achieve wealth or any other goal. You first need to have the burning desire I talked about earlier.
For example, I used to have a vision board where I placed images of things I wanted. At one point I had a computer and a car on the board. I very quickly got the new computer but not the new car.
Why?
I hate cars but LOVE computers … particularly fast, new, shiny computers. I get the warm fuzzies when I think about a new computer. Cars however, are a necessary evil, in my opinion. They cost too much to purchase and maintain and you have to spend way too much mental energy on remembering to gas up, get oil changes, change the tires etc.
It’s no surprise that I got the computer quickly but not the car. My goal of a computer was a burning desire, the car, not so much.
So back to the idea of autosuggestion.
First, you need to have a Burning Desire – something you actually want, and want badly. You must have Faith that you can achieve that goal. You don’t necessarily have to know exactly how you will achieve it yet, just belief in your ability to figure it out and achieve it.
Next Hill wrote that you should go to a quiet spot and repeat your affirmation aloud, morning and night.
For example, say your goal is to accumulate $100,000 by January 1, 2016. Your written affirmation might look something like this:
“By the first day of January 2016, I will have in my possession $100,000 which will come to me in various amounts, from time to time during the interim.
“In return for this money I will give the most efficient service of which I am capable, rendering the fullest possible quantity and the best possible quality of service as a [describe what you will be doing or selling].
“I believe I will have this money in my possession. My faith is so strong that I can now see this money before my eyes. I can touch it with my hands. It is now waiting for me in the proportion that I deliver the service I intend to render in return for it. I am awaiting a plan by which to accumulate this money, and I will follow that plan when it is received.”
Hill contends that if you repeat this affirmation (or something similar) morning and night until you can visualize yourself achieving this goal you will have reprogrammed your subconscious mind.
Of course, you don’t have to use Hill’s exact affirmation. You can write your own. Just be as specific as possible as to the goal, the deadline and what you’re going to do to achieve the goal. The key is to repeat it daily until you have programmed your subconscious into getting with the program and replacing negative self-talk with a more positive, “go for it” message.
Do you use affirmations? What’s your experience with them? Please share your thoughts by commenting below.
