I Mocked Affirmations—Until These 7 Mind-Blowing Ones Made Me Rethink Life (and My Zodiac Sign Approves!)
Added on November 21, 2025 inASTROLOGY CARDS
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So, here’s the kicker: I used to think positive affirmations were about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. Seriously, the corny vibes from those 80s and 90s self-help tapes haunt me—and apparently, I wasn’t alone. Most of my friends would rather gouge their eyes out than hear “I radiate beauty, charm, and grace” while staring at a sunset pic. Sound familiar? But hold up—before you roll yours, there’s some legit science behind affirmations that might just surprise you. The trick? They’ve gotta be authentic. None of that “I’m the greatest ever” baloney that makes you want to cringe so hard you retract into your shell. If you’re skeptical (like I was), buckle up—because I’m about to spill how I turned this old-school tactic into a real-life game changer, and no, it’s not about lying to yourself. Curious if the stars have a say in your self-talk? Well, you’re in the right place to find out how to make affirmations work for you without sounding like a cheesy horoscope. LEARN MORE.
I used to think that positive affirmations were nonsense. I’m not alone. Most of my friends truly can’t stand them. It just reminds you of the corny self-help audiotapes from the 80s and 90s. And many of those corny affirmations are still around. The other day, I stumbled upon a picture of a sunset with this on it: “I radiate beauty, charm, and grace.” That stuff doesn’t resonate with me.
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But the idea behind affirmations actually does work. There’s even science behind it. The problem is that they have a bad rep. You just have to do it in a way that doesn’t make you cringe. So if you’re skeptical about affirmations, this article is for you. I’ll show you how I actually use this age-old strategy to improve my life.
Affirmations are validations of your core values. Scholars define self-affirmation as a process of thinking or writing about one’s core values. Affirmations are positive statements that overcome negative thoughts by affirming your self-integrity.
Self-affirmations are NOT about praising yourself or telling yourself lies. It’s also a bad strategy for people who are temporarily low on self-esteem or are depressed. In those cases, false affirmations only make you feel worse. Genuine self-affirmations serve as a reminder of what you deeply believe in, what you want to do, and what you have to do to get what you want.
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Positive affirmations that work. The key to positive affirmations is this: Don’t lie to yourself. That’s all! Telling yourself things you don’t believe doesn’t help. For example, “I’m the greatest person in the world.” We can tell that to ourselves a million times, but it won’t change a thing unless we truly live by it.
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When I’m doing difficult work, like writing a book or creating a course, I can get overwhelmed during the process. But then, I think, “I’ve written a book before, so why can’t I do it again?”
You can use that for everything. If you’ve written one article, you can probably write another one; if you’ve written 100 articles, you can also write a book. And so forth. Start small and build it up.
I was talking about this concept of relying on small successes with my researcher, John. He said he does something similar: ”When I first started running as an adult, I could barely finish a 10-kilometer race. I was still halfway through, and I already felt like passing out! But I finished it, even if I was among the last finishers. And though it was a difficult victory, getting that done gave me the confidence to do another 10K. Eventually, I became confident enough to do a 12K, then a 25K, then a marathon, then an ultra.”
That’s such a great example of gradual improvement. He’s now running ultra trail marathons (more than 50K on rough terrain), which is even harder. Telling yourself, “You can do it,” if you haven’t done something, doesn’t work. We all have an internal lie detector that goes off when we tell ourselves a lie. Instead, focus on things you’ve done, and get better at them.
Success raises self-efficacy, while failure lowers it. Research involving 9,221 adolescents found that mastery experiences explained more of the observed variance in self-efficacy than any other factor, with the feeling that you’ve mastered things making the strongest contribution to building self-efficacy.
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Now and then, we feel like skipping the gym, not completing our tasks, hitting the snooze button, etc. Everybody procrastinates. We tell ourselves excuses like, “I’ll do it tomorrow,” or “I’m too tired.”
We often procrastinate because we don’t feel like doing something. There’s a word for that: Excuse. Look, we all have the tendency to cop out when things get hard. In those times, it’s good to remind yourself that everything will get harder the more you delay your tasks. That’s why I often think of this: “Do it today, not tomorrow.”
Dr. Sharon Saline, a psychologist, explains that procrastination is often related to anxiety and a failure mentality. The best way to combat procrastination is to break things down into small, doable chunks that seem more manageable, and this trial approach builds your confidence one step at a time because you are performing something instead of avoiding it
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I have a tendency to rush my work because I want to get to the finish line. I like to get things done (see next affirmation). But if you always rush your work, you might overlook important details. And as a result, the quality of your work will suffer.
If you can recognize yourself in that, remind yourself to also love the process. It’s important to have goals and to finish projects. But it’s also important to enjoy your work. After all, you’re spending a lot of time working. So you’d better learn to love it.
Research from Syracuse University examining thousands of firms over several decades found that when deadlines are in place, workers tend to complete their tasks at the last minute, often leading to lower quality outcomes. Moving too quickly through activities hinders your ability to do them effectively, leading to lower-quality results and increasing your risk of making mistakes
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When I’m working on boring or mundane tasks like paying bills, cleaning my apartment, buying groceries, you name it, I tell myself to get it done and move on. I know that Buddhist monks tell you to enjoy doing the dishes, but that’s just not me.
I love being more present, but not for that kind of stuff. I just get it done and move on to something I actually enjoy. We have to do many things we don’t like. You don’t have to enjoy everything. Just do it and get on with your life.
Psychologist Nick Wignall explains that the problem with perfectionism is the intolerance of difficult feelings. Perfectionists frequently get discouraged and give up on long-term goals because they’re unwilling to tolerate feeling less than perfect.
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In everything we do, there’s always that point when we’re about to give up. Let’s say you’re on a run and you want to stop because your lungs are on fire, or you’re trying to build your first business but life keeps getting in the way.
If you really want to achieve your goals, you can’t quit halfway through because it can become a habit. If we don’t do what we set out to do, we often feel disappointed. It’s a terrible cycle. Telling yourself you’re almost there can help you to keep pushing forward and become a finisher, someone who does what they say.
The perception of progress and proximity to a goal’s attainment can lead to enhanced engagement, persistence, and performance, research shows, which may result in a higher likelihood of successfully reaching the desired outcome. Self-talk can enhance persistence toward academic goal completion in demotivating situations, as a form of self-regulation of motivation.
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I love this one. It’s so blunt, which makes it effective.
And literally every other minor thing in life. The answer is: So what? Honestly, why do we even care about so much nonsense? Life is already hard enough, so don’t make it harder by taking everything so seriously. Just say “so what?” more often.
Keeping temporary problems in perspective by reminding yourself that the emotional pain, anxiety, or turmoil won’t last forever is crucial, explains psychotherapist Amy Morin. Many of today’s crucial decisions and major worries won’t actually matter that much a few years down the road.
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You’re getting ready to work out, but it’s raining and you don’t feel like getting in your car to drive to the gym, and you say, “Maybe I’ll go some other time.” Or you’re about to launch your online business, and you’ve done everything to prepare, but you’re scared to publish your website.
When this happens, remind yourself that the only way out is through. When you’ve put in the work, it’s time to go. No need to overthink things and try to be perfect. Stop hesitating, tell yourself, “Let’s go,” and just go.
According to one study, onset delay, or the intention-action gap, constitutes a core problem in procrastination. When you use this rule repeatedly over time, you form new habits with a bias for proactive action, breaking old habits of procrastinating, overthinking, or giving in to self-doubt and fear while building new habits of taking action in spite of uncertainty.
Self-affirmations are all about reminding yourself of your core values. It’s not about tricking yourself into becoming more self-confident. Most of us are too skeptical about that anyway. But all of this stuff remains connected. Are you self-confident because you use self-affirmations, or is it the other way around?
No one knows exactly because humans are complex. The goal is to find a way to remind yourself of who you are and what you want. Without those reminders, we fall back on our bad habits. Ultimately, that’s what you want to avoid.
Darius Foroux is a freelance writer and entrepreneur who has appeared in TIME, NBC, Fast Company, Inc., Observer, and other publications. He is the author of Do It Today: Overcome Procrastination, Improve Productivity, and Achieve More Meaningful Things.
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