When you’re working hard on your goals, putting time and energy into changing habits and powering away towards positive change, what more can you do to ensure success?
Self-affirmations are a proven way to improve performance and help to overcome self-doubt, especially when under pressure.
What are affirmations?
Psychologists define a self-affirmation as an act that demonstrates one’s adequacy. Some examples of self-affirmations that are discussed in research include, positive feedback on a personally important skill, the purchase of status goods, and updating one’s Facebook page.
It’s not only big achievements, like passing an exam or winning a race, that are significant and self-affirming. Research shows that everyday acts, like receiving a note of thanks from a friend or a stressed worker caring for their family, are equally self-affirming. Actions that strongly affirm our core values act as great self-affirmations and much of the psychological research relating to self-affirmations, is based around values.
How do affirmations work?
Self-affirmations encourage us to have a broader view of ourselves and our capabilities. Research reveals the benefit of self-affirmations, especially during times of stress and anxiety. When we experience a challenge or threat to our sense of who we are, for example, a threat to health or times of transition and change, we can use self-affirmations to help weather the storm. The self affirmation need not be related to the source of the threat but can have powerful results when used.
Psychologist and self-affirmation expert, David Sherman, describes what happens when self-affirmations are used; smokers are more open to anti-smoking information, athletes take more responsibility for their teams’ defeats and less credit for their successes, and minority students who experience stereotyping behaviour feel greater belonging in school and show long-term, improved academic performance.
The evidence for affirmations
Research demonstrates that when we apply self-control to one task, our resources for self-control in subsequent tasks are depleted. However, recent research suggests that affirmations can be a useful mental strategy to overcome such depletion. The research has shown that self-affirmations can improve self-control even when it has been depleted. Illustrating that self- affirmations can reap multiple benefits when the going gets tough.
Sherman proposes that self-affirmations lead to three positive outcomes:
1. Self-affirmations boost self-resources.
2. Self-affirmations broaden the perspective with which people view information and events in their lives, and
3. Self-affirmations lead to a detachment of our sense of self from the threat, reducing the impact that the threat has on our sense of self.
Sherman’s model helps explain what happens when we affirm our values in the context of threats, and how self-affirmations can lead to lasting change by shaping the nature of our experience. When self-affirmations remind us of who we are and what’s important to us, stress is reduced by putting threats into context.
5 ways to use self-affirmations for positive change
1. Establish your values and character strengths. Take time out to think about the importance of the values you hold. Establish your top ten values, a great place to start is Pennsylvania University’s Values in Action survey.
2. Acknowledge and savour your successes. This is especially important in times of challenge when self-affirmations can be especially helpful. If self-esteem is low, acknowledging and savouring successes will also help to grow confidence and build esteem.
3. Recall situations when your values prompted actions. Look for patterns and consider how your values have shaped your experience.
4. Make time to think about who you are and what’s important to you. Actively consider how you can get into the habit of consciously thinking about what makes you unique, your values, your character and what you hold dear.
5. Keep a values in action journal. Keep a record of occasions when you’re value driven actions have left you feeling energised and authentic. When you experience challenge or your confidence is at a low ebb, read through the journal to remind yourself just how resourceful you are.
