Why Affirmations Don’t Work – Part 8

The Misnomer of Goal-Setting (Continued)

I suppose people look to some sort of achievement in order to prove something to themselves and others. There’s a famous Bible verse, James 2:20 that says, “Faith without works is dead.” This verse has been used for years to intimidate Christians into doing all sorts of benevolent acts in, or through, the church. The idea is that if you had faith then you would do this or that. This puts a guilt-trip on church members to use their own effort to do things they wouldn’t normally be inclined to do. What I have witnessed time and again is the fact that a person can behave a certain way; perhaps perform acts of charity – despite lacking the sort of character that is conducive to such acts. You could say that some people do all the right things, but for the wrong reasons.

One of the analogies that I’ve read in various self-help books is that of the mind of a positive, prosperous, successful and healthy person being swapped with that of a negative, poor, unsuccessful and unhealthy poor person. It would only be a matter of time before the life of the positive person would become run down, everything that he work hard to build, such as relationships, wealth and a thriving business – would deteriorate.

Conversely, the life of the negative person would inevitably turnaround – his relationships would improve and he would attract new people; his finances would also improve as he starts to make good investments and becomes more frugal; his health would also improve as he cuts down on his unhealthy indulgences and makes an effort to keep himself in shape.

This is all hypothetical of course, even if the technology was present to perform such a mind-transplant, there’s no guarantee of precisely what the effect would be. But at least this gives a rather compelling portrait of what could happen and demonstrates the point that it is indeed the mind that governs the condition of a person’s life – not the other way around.

So having said all of this, I would say that a person’s focus should shift from attracting big-ticket items and large sums of money – to the development of positivity and character. You can’t wait until you have or do this or that until you will be happy – life starts right now – the quality of that life depends on how you think. There’s not always a lot we can do about our present circumstances – despite what the self-help gurus tell us. But you can do something about your beliefs, attitudes and feelings – right where you are in life now. It is your beliefs and attitudes that determine whether things will go well for you or not in the future; it is your beliefs and attitudes that determine whether you will be happy and make the most of things or if you will be miserable and give up.