On My Way to Greatness: Understand the Power of Affirmations, Unlock Your Full Potential and Manifest the Power Within You

By Wildine Pierre

When your goals seem far away, all you need to do is own your greatness - Read more to unlock the greatness within using proven strategies!

"It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen." - Mohammad Ali

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildine Pierre
• Release date: Jun 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781087963686

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

— Muhammad Ali

I was born into a happy home. We didn’t have much, but my parents made sure that I didn’t want anything. They had built our family from the ground up, working for every cent that went into making our modest house a home. They devoted tireless hours to ensure that we grew up happy, spent time outdoors, and learned that a life lived with love is the only kind there is.

Now, all went well for me until I reached that age where rage bubbles inside you, sudden, angry, and hot. There was no plausible reason for it. I was just tired of feeling like I’d never be good enough. There was always someone who did better than me in studies, who was more ambitious, and had their life sorted out- yes, even at that impossibly young age.

The more I got to know people outside the purview of my home, the more isolated I felt. I’d always been too concerned with being two steps ahead of each game. While my parents had never been hard on me, the looming expectations that society subconsciously placed on young children grew until they had become larger than my entire measly frame.

I began doing far too much, and the harder I tried, the more stressed I became. An endless stream of negativity entered my soul, making me feel like I’d let my family down. So, I began withdrawing from them.

Naturally, my good old folks could not understand why my personality had undergone a 360-degree shift. They tried everything, but this was a far cry from the child who was always so happy and bubbly- who was content to ride around in makeshift boxes pulled by a string by her dad and pretend that they were better than the swankiest cars ever.

One day, my father took stock of the situation. We sat down to a family dinner. At the time, he always spent the evenings reading to me before I dozed off. As I curled into my bed, feeling glum about the forthcoming day, he sat beside me, humming a gentle tune. He waited until I let out a long sigh.

Hey. D’you know how your mother and I manage always to stay upbeat?

I shook my head. Honestly, I didn’t.

There was a time when every day in our lives felt dark and unwelcoming. We had nothing. We came from nothing. There was a red, hot anger inside me, making me feel all these things- how dared other people to have fortune and luxuries I could never afford when I was so much more capable? How dare my life be so cruel and worthless? Why should I have to keep suffering? It was a tirade of toxicity; one thought feeding into the next.

I sat up, curiosity coursing through my eyes. This was just how I was feeling.

How’d you change what you felt, dad?

I didn’t. Instead, I changed how I thought.

Okay, how?

He smiled at me. With a lot of self-work. I learned that the best way to turn something into a habit was to nurture it. And all this while, I had been nurturing only toxic thoughts. But, if you change- if you decide to grow a little seed of hope amid all that darkness and water it every day, you eventually grow a plant, then a tree, then a whole ecosystem. You have that power.

Where did you start?

Well, I began with something that was equal parts powerful and simple.

My eyes were gleaming now. What was it, dad? How do I get it?

Then, he handed me a book that changed my life forever. It was a worn-out journal, the pages rough and well-read. The cover, a battered and frayed one, read My Affirmations Diary.

Begin and end your day with them. And when you say them, believe what you say.

I nodded, opening the first page.

Twenty years later, I am content with my achievements. I have a happy home, beautiful children, and a loving husband. My work as a nurse allows me to return as much love to the world as it blesses me with.  I own several businesses and real estate and have accomplished what most (including myself at one point) thought was impossible.

And so can you.

You've already taken the first step by finding your way to this book. You’re ready to acknowledge that intrusive thoughts don’t stand a chance against you because you want to seek happiness, positivity, and abundance.

We all have days where we feel spent, diminished, and worthy of nothing. There can be many reasons for making us feel this way. We may be at the crossroads of a momentous decision gone wrong, making us question our very purpose.

There’s a possibility that you’re on the hunt for something- anything- that will help you rebuild a relationship with yourself. Maybe you’ve already used several tools, and gone to a hundred confidence-building classes but still have not seen the results you want. You’ve fought with those you love, degraded your capabilities and nature, and belittled yourself time and again.

Well, I’m here to tell you that you deserve everything whole and beautiful. What you need is a belief system, a road (much like Dorothy’s Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz) to return you to your highest self.

I have known a lot of hardship in my life- and though it seems strange, much of it was self-inflicted. I used to find myself undeserving of anything good. My destructive ways of self-degradation would regularly send me into spirals of negativity from where life always seemed bleak and dull.

Everything changed when I began researching the science and methodology of affirmations. I found out that we human beings are oriented to gravitate towards seeking out appreciation, compassion, and kindness.

A study published in 2016 confirmed (via Magnetic Resource Imaging) that a daily routine with self-affirmations triggers reward centers in your brain (Casico et al., 2016). If you verbally repeat something positive, say, I choose to give a great presentation today, it lights up the component parts of your brain that in turn generate positive responses. Affirmations activate neural pathways and elicit responses from those parts of your brain that make you feel happy and uplifted.

Through this book, we will discover how you can regain control over your life by commanding it with positivity. We’ll understand what affirmations are, the science behind why they work, and how you can make them an integral part of your life.

Before we step forward, take a deep breath and remind yourself- you deserve all the good things. As Ann Bradford would say, Tell the negative committee that sits inside your head to sit down and shut up!

Come on then! Let’s get started.

Chapter 1

What Are Affirmations?

When I began my journey into understanding what affirmations were and how they could help me, I had two main goals in mind. First, I wanted to know how I could feel good even if things around me weren’t necessarily ideal. Second, I desired a personal development framework.

Affirmations proved to be the answer to both of these goals, but they also brought me much, much more.

The Mind’s Dirty Little Secret

The mind affects our actions more than any other physical body part. It can help you realize your dreams and uncover your potential, as long as you let yourself get there. The problem with this is that some factors can wreak havoc on how our minds want to function.

The first of these factors is the Dunning-Kruger effect. This works in a very curious way. Have you ever met someone completely bereft of any knowledge on the topic they are discussing yet speak about it as if they are verified experts on the subject? My mother used to refer to this with the age-old empty vessels make much noise adage.

So, the Dunning-Kruger effect makes people with little to no knowledge of subjects consider themselves experts. On the other hand, it also makes people who are essentially very well-versed and eloquent on the same subject quiet and averse to believing they have what it takes- in short, it makes them underestimate their talents. If you’re reading this and thinking, oh, I definitely must be an empty vessel, trust me, you’re not. The empty vessels would never think this. Neither should you. 

Next, there’s the observational selection bias, which gives us a sense of presuming that what we have is common to everyone- there’s nothing special or unique about us. For instance (I’m about to suggest a very poor example here), let’s say we buy a new coffee machine. Then suddenly, everyone around us seems to have that same coffee machine, effectively reducing the exclusive tag associated with it.

The final factor is confirmation bias. This is when we are too focused (overly so) on believing something that is in tandem with our assumptions. For instance, if we see an air-brushed and gorgeous picture that has