When you woke up this morning, stumbled over to the mirror, and had a good long gander, what was the first thing you said to yourself? Did you give yourself a solid pep talk, remind yourself how awesome you are and think about all the ways you were going to crush it today? Probably not. You let that trash-talking peanut gallery in your head make you feel like you’re inadequate. Enough! If you’re going to take on the world and conquer it, you’ve got to know how to stop negative self-talk.

Negative self-talk is a symptom of something greater than just a lack of self-confidence. It can stem from years of not feeling support, an unending string of what we perceive to be failure, and an inability to see our potential. The roots of pervasive negativity can go all the way back to our childhood and manifest because we have unfinished business there, or it can be because we never developed a sense of resilience.

Overcoming negative self-talk isn’t merely an exercise in changing our mindset (although, that is a vital component for transformation), but a process which we have to be open to, so we can realize that on the other side of “I can’t” is an infinite world of “I absolutely can!”

You know that ol’ adage, “If we don’t respect ourselves, how can we expect anyone else to respect us?” The same goes for negative self-talk. We can’t lean on others to believe in us if we’re sitting in the back row doing an audit on our life instead of realizing that we are exceptional. So let’s dive in and learn some strategies to change our inner conversations and overcome negative self-talk for good.

HOW TO STOP NEGATIVE SELF-TALK

1. Call Your Critic By Name

Don’t roll your eyes, hear me out. You have been throwing shade at yourself for so long, you probably don’t even recognize when you’re being negative. That inner critic has latched onto you like a parasite and it’s time to set it free.

Give that critic a name, something funny. And every time you hear or catch yourself thinking something negative or critical, talk to your inner critic as if it were a person. Let it know it’s gunning for a break-up, and it’s just a matter of time.

If you feel comfortable enough, share the name of your inner critic with your friends and family so when they recognize you being negative, they can keep you accountable.

2. Talk it Out to Overcome Negative Self-Talk

Keeping with the theme of reaching out to friends and family, overcoming negative self-talk is a journey. It doesn’t happen overnight. And chances are, the ones closest to you (including your boss) have suffered alongside you. They are just as invested in your becoming a happier, more positive person as you are.

So when you feel yourself slipping into the doldrums, shoot a text to a trusted confidant and run those thoughts by them. If you’re mid-rant, telling yourself how useless you are, wouldn’t it be liberating to have someone chime in to tell you how smart, hardworking and kind you are?

Of course. It’s going to take a few battles to win the war, don’t be afraid to enlist the help of trusty troops.

3. If You Can’t Get Positive, Go Neutral

There is no pill for overcoming negative self-talk (though some may disagree). It takes work. Placing pressure on yourself to be all rainbows and sunshine right out of the gate only sets you up for failure, putting you in a headspace where negativity begets negativity.

Take baby steps. Start with very simple language changes. Swap out sentences like, “I can’t do this” or “this will never,” with phrases like, “I just need more time” and “maybe this can.”

This may seem trivial and ridiculous, but we’re talking about the power of language. Think about how destructive your language has been to you and your life. If you’re not ready to fully commit to complete transformation, let’s at least crack the door open, and explore some possibilities.

4. Stay in the Moment

Whew! This is a tough one, especially when one of your favourite things to do (subconsciously) is to focus on the absolute worst case scenario of everything in life. But unless you’ve discovered time travel, you have absolutely no idea what is going to happen.

Stop focusing on the “what if” and get your head in the game by being comfortable with the “right now.”

5. Get Off the Guilt Trip

Avid negative self-talkers love to pack their bags and head out on the most epic guilt trips. Guilt tripping lets you take inventory of every single minute thing that you didn’t get done, and then you get to revel in your failure to complete things. What about focusing on all the things you accomplished instead?

If you want to overcome negative self-talk, take 15 minutes out of your day every day and write down everything you accomplished. No detail is too small. From brushing your teeth, to closing a sale, to doing a load of laundry. You’re getting stuff done; you’re just too focused on what you feel like you should be doing.

6. Stop Pretending to Read Minds

Unless you’ve been side-gigging as a psychic, you have absolutely no idea what’s going on in someone else’s head. Read that again. If they haven’t told you, you have no idea what someone else is thinking.

So why are you creating negative dialogues about what they might be thinking about you? You need to stop attaching meaning to everything someone says to you, and stop fabricating stories that say bad things about you.

7. Surround Yourself With Positive People

Sure, opposites attract, but rarely do individuals who regularly engage in negative self-talk attract happy, positive people, and there’s good reason for that; happy people like to surround themselves with other happy people. If you exist in a circle of negativity outside of yourself, what hope do you have of making a transformation?

Make some social adjustments. If you’ve got family members who are enabling you or engage in negative self-talk, take a step back. Tell them you love them, but you need to make some changes for your mental well being.

8. Shift Your Perspective to Stop Negative Self-Talk

Pffft! Easier said than done, right? Sure, but totally worth a try. Take an inventory of your fears, your concerns, your challenges. Write them out, and read them back to yourself. Now write down why you think you’re incapable of overcoming these things.

Are they really so difficult? Are you asking yourself to climb Everest with no equipment next weekend? Are you being asked to solve world hunger by 2023? How dire are these issues you’re facing? You can absolutely push through whatever is holding you back from unleashing your potential. 

9. Simplify Your Social Media Influences

Don’t panic, I’m not telling you to get off social media…completely. What I am asking you to do is to take a deep dive on who and what you are letting influence your inner dialogue on the social media landscape.

Are you following positive people and brands? Do you spend hours and hours disappearing down social media rabbit holes, only to come up for air feeling even less adequate than when you swiped into the app? Clear the decks! If you’re not following accounts that make you feel like a rock star, or share positive narratives, you do not need them in your life right now.

10. Become Someone Else’s Hype Person

Helping others makes us feel good. It gets those endorphins pumping. But it also has a sneaky way of making us feel better about ourselves, and we tend to hold our chins a little higher. Consider taking on a mentorship role to someone in your life.

It could be a friend starting a business or a colleague who needs some support in getting that next promotion. Engaging in supportive dialogue with someone we care about can retrain our brains into quieting our own inner critics.

Final Thoughts on Negative Self-Talk

Negative self-talk is akin to cancer. It can permeate every aspect of our life, impacting our career aspirations, family and friend dynamics, and relationships. The great news is, it’s not a permanent state of being, it’s a choice.

Like everything in life, anything worth having requires time, effort and dedication, but once you cross that threshold into living a more positive existence, everything gets easier from there on out. So, if you’re ready to overcome negative self-talk for good, put these tips to good use daily.

Till then,

STRIVE

PS – If you enjoyed this article on how to stop negative self-talk, then you’ll enjoy this read on how changing your mindset can can change your life, and you may even find value in these powerful affirmations for confidence.

Peter Drucker was one of the most influential thinkers of the modern business world. Many still consider as the father of modern management; considering his ideas impacted countless leaders and executives, many of whom have gone on to become high-powered executives and Titan’s of industry. With that being said, Drucker’s ideas are powerful, and should be known by all, not just those destined for the C-suite.

So, to ensure Peter Drucker’s legacy persists, and to help his ideas continue to inform and educate aspiring executives; from the homemaker to the solopreneur, all the way to the high powered corporate executive, we’ve pulled together some of his most insightful quotes on execution, effective management, and getting things done.

So, if you’re ready to dive into some Peter Drucker quotes that can help you start executing like a Rockstar CEO, then let’s get to it.

BEST PETER DRUCKER QUOTES

1. “To be effective is the job of the executive. “To effect” and “to execute” are, after all, near synonyms. Whether he works in a business or in a hospital, in a government agency or in a labor union, in a university or in the army, the executive is, first of all, expected to get the right things done.” – Peter Drucker

2. “Brilliant men are often strikingly ineffectual; they fail to realize that the brilliant insight is not by itself achievement. They never have learned that insights become effectiveness only through hard systematic work.” – Peter Drucker

3. “Don’t think or say “I”. Think and say “we.” Effective executives know that they have ultimate responsibility, which can be neither shared nor delegated.” – Peter Drucker

4. “The greatest wisdom not applied to action and behavior is meaningless data.” – Peter Drucker

5. “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” – Peter Drucker

6. “Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice.” – Peter Drucker

7. “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.” – Peter Drucker

8. “Every knowledge worker in modern organization is an “executive” if, by virtue of his position or knowledge, he is responsible for a contribution that materially affects the capacity of the organization to perform and to obtain results.” – Peter Drucker

9. “An organization is an organ of society and fulfills itself by the contribution it makes to the outside environment.” – Peter Drucker

10. “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker

11. “Time is totally irreplaceable. Within limits we can substitute one resource for another, copper for aluminum, for instance. We can substitute capital for human labor. We can use more knowledge or more brawn. But there is no substitute for time.” – Peter Drucker

12. “The effective executive therefore knows that to manage his time, he first has to know where it actually goes.” – Peter Drucker

13. “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.”

14. “The man who asks of himself, “What is the most important contribution I can make to the performance of this organization?” asks in effect, “What self-development do I need?” – Peter Drucker

15. “Commitment to contribution is commitment to responsible effectiveness.” – Peter Drucker

16. “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” – Peter Drucker

17. “People in general, and knowledge workers in particular, grow according to the demands they make on themselves. They grow according to what they consider achievement and attainment. If they demand little of themselves, they will remain stunted. If they demand a good deal of themselves, they will grow to giant stature – without anymore effort than is expended by the nonachievers.” – Peter Drucker

18. “If there is one “secret” of effectiveness, it is concentration. Effective executives do first things first and they do one thing at a time.” – Peter Drucker

19. “Effectiveness is, after all, not a “subject”, but a self-discipline.” – Peter Drucker

20. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker

21. “Self-development of the effective executive is central to the development of the organization, whether it be a business, a government agency, a research laboratory, a hospital, or a military service. It is the way toward performance of the organization. As executives work toward becoming effective, they raise the performance of the organization.” – Peter Drucker

22. “Executive effectiveness is our one best hope to make modern society productive economically and viable socially.” – Peter Drucker

23. “Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge are essential resources, but only effectiveness converts them into results.” – Peter Drucker

24. “Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.” – Peter Drucker

25. “Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.” – Peter Drucker

26. “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.” – Peter Drucker

27. “What’s measured improves” – Peter Drucker

28. “People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.” – Peter Drucker

29. “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” – Peter Drucker

30. “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” – Peter Drucker

31. “Never mind your happiness; do your duty.” – Peter Drucker

32. “Every enterprise requires commitment to common goals and shared values. Without such commitment there is no enterprise; there is only a mob.” – Peter Drucker

33. “Meetings are by definition a concession to deficient organization For one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.” – Peter Drucker

34. “Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.” – Peter Drucker

35. “Effectiveness must be learned.” – Peter Drucker

Bonus Peter Drucker Quote

Bonus: Alright, here is our final Peter Drucker quote. We listed as a bonus, because it so effectively summarizes the importance of execution, and while all leaders should focus on getting better at it.

“Strategy Is A Commodity, Execution Is An Art.”

– Peter Drucker –

Final Thoughts

Alright, there you have it, the most effective Peter Drucker quotes to help you hunker down and start taking care of business like a true CEO.

We hope they inspire you and help you realize that you don’t have to be a CEO of some multinational corporation to become an effective executive. You can become one as you are, where you are.

Till next time,

STRIVE

PS – If you enjoyed these Peter Drucker Quotes, then you’ll love these Robin Sharma Quotes, and you may even enjoy these Price Pritchett Quotes.

Creating a successful and flourishing life is not something that just accidently happens to people. Successful living is a choice, and it almost always requires personal growth. Most of us have to start somewhere, and it’s rarely at the top. But to get to the top, or to a higher level, we have stretch ourselves, we have to take action, we have to grow. So, to inspire anyone who’s on their own journey for achieving a better life for themselves, we’ve decided to publish these inspiring self-growth quotes.

Our hope is that these quotes will encourage, inspire, and move you to aspire to become your best self, because the better you become, the better your life will become. So, if you’re ready to grow then let’s dive into these inspiring quotes about personal growth:

BEST SELF-GROWTH QUOTES

1. “Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action.” – Orison Swett Marden

2. “Infinite riches are all around you if you will open your mental eyes and behold the treasure house of infinity within you. There is a gold mine within you from which you can extract everything you need to live life gloriously, joyously and abundantly.” – Joseph Murphy, Ph.D.

3. “For the purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.” – Henri Frederic Amiel

4. “There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. The true nobility lies in being superior to your previous self.” – Eastern Proverb

5. “People are where they are because that is exactly where they really want to be–whether they will admit that or not.” – Earl Nightingale

6. “What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.” – Buddha.

7. “Thought is a vital, living force, the most vital, subtle and irresistible force that exists in the universe…Thoughts are living things.” – Swami Sivananda

8. “Successful men become successful only because they acquire the habit of thinking in terms of success.” – Napoleon Hill

9. “Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy, strength and peace. By right choice, and true application of thought, man ascends to divine perfection. By the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast.” – James Allen

10. “Thinking always ahead, thinking always of trying to do more, brings a state of mind in which nothing seems impossible.” – Henry Ford

Related: Discipline Quotes

11. “Man in still responsible. He must turn the alloy of modern experience into the steel of mastery and character. His success lies not with the stars but with himself. He must carry on the fight of self-correction and discipline. He must fight mediocrity as sin and live against the imperative of life’s highest ideal.” – Frank Curtis Williams

12. “What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are; and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.” – H.P. Liddon

13. “The man of character is one who selects a reasonable objective and never gives up pursuing it so long as he has not reached his goal.” – Raymond De Saint-Laurent

14. “A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.” – Dalai Lama

15. “The essence of genius is knowing what to overlook.” – William James

16. “Be not afraid of life. Believe that it is worth living, and your belief will help create that fact.” – William James

17. “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” – Norman Vincent Peale

18. “If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I do not have it at the beginning.” – Mahatma Gandhi

19. “What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.” – Anthony Robbins

20. “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi

21. “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” – W.W. Ziege

22. “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau

23. “A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change.” – Earl Nightingale

24. “Choosing to be positive and having a grateful attitude is going to determine how you’re going to live your life.” – Joel Osteen

25. “The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.” – William James

26. “If you deliver excellence right now, that gives you the best shot at the best future you’ve got coming.” – Robert Forster

27. “Just believe that there is genuine creative magic in believing, and magic there will be, for belief will supply the power which will enable you to succeed in everything you undertake.” – Claude M. Bristol

28. “Everyone knows that weeds eat out the life of the garden and of the productive fields. The gardener and the farmer alike each has to keep the weeding process alive… It’s like that in the building and developing of character. No one knows our faults and tendencies better than we do ourselves, so that it is up to each one of us to keep the weeds out, and to keep all growth vigorous and fruitful.” – George Matthew Adams

29. Perfection has to do with the end product, but excellence has to do with the process.” – Jerry Moran

30. “Excellence is the gradual result of always trying to do better.” – Pat Riley

Related: Success Quotes

31. “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” – Benjamin Franklin

32. “To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics; to appreciate beauty; to give one’s self, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived – that is to have succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

33. “Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success.” – Shiv Khera

34. “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein

35. “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” – John Wooden

36. “Wisdom thoroughly learned will never be forgotten.” – Pythagoras

37. “Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.” – Charles F. Kettering

38. “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.” – Joe Paterno

39. “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” – Henry Ford

40. “We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.” – Max DePree

41. “In this world you’re either growing or you’re dying so get in motion and grow.” – Lou Holtz

42. “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

43. “Personal development is the belief that you are worth the effort, time and energy needed to develop yourself.” – Denis Waitley

44. “It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.” – Roy T. Bennett

45. “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor Frankl

46. “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Henry David Thoreau

47. “Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change.” – Richard Branson

48. “Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.” – Stephen Covey

49. “You don’t need to change the world; you need to change yourself.” – Miguel Ruiz

50. “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” – John C. Maxwell

Final Thoughts

There you have it, the top self growth quotes for inspiring successful living. We hope you enjoyed them, and we hope they help and guide you towards living life to the fullest. With that being said, if you found any of these quote inspiring, please share the page. Because you never know who’s world you may change.

Till next time,

STRIVE

PS – If you enjoyed these personal growth quotes then you’ll likely enjoy these quotes about bettering yourself.

Self-discipline is one of the most important life skills a person possess. It’s one of those traits that impacts just about every area of our lives. When we have it under control, it positively compounds for us; impacting our sleep, nutrition, habits, and our efforts. But, the opposite is also true, when it’s neglected, the negative effects will cascade to downward to every area of our lives. As such, it is imperative to learn how to build self-discipline.

“Without Self-Discipline, Success is Impossible, Period.”

– Lou Holtz –

Now, developing self-discipline takes thoughtful and intentional work. It requires a high level of focus that is essential for success in nearly every phase of life. That said, we’ve pulled together some of the best daily habits you can adopt today to make building self-discipline a breeze. So, if you’re ready to learn about these key habits, then let’s get right to it.

How to Build Self-Discipline

1. Set Small Goals Daily

Goals are different for everyone, some people have small goals and some have large goals. However, committing to and working towards goals can level up your self-discipline faster than almost any other method.

However, since small goals are more easily accomplished and get used to that feeling of accomplishment sooner. Things like sending an email to a client or changing your bed linen may be small or things you’ve put off. Making them a goal and accomplishing them will give you the feeling of success.

The small goals that you create daily should be in the form of a “to-do” list. When you have completed a goal, you are building discipline.

2. Keep Your Goals In Front of You

There are so many distractions in our everyday life. From smartphones and social media to television and radio, shiny objects are dangling in front of us at every turn. Having our goals in our face where we can see them daily helps keep us focused.

So don’t hesitate to write those goals on post-it notes, have them on your mirror, create an elaborate vision board, use your screensaver, or paste them to your headboard.

Whatever works for you, what you see daily is what you work to manifest. Keeping your goals in front of you helps you visualize and eventually manifest.

Related: Why You Must Write Down Your Goals

3. Learn How To Prioritize

What you have to do daily or even monthly all have a certain priority level in your life. Understanding what is essential and what is less relevant is essential to your success. When everything seems important, the number one tip is that you cannot do everything. Aside from that, some tips to prioritizing are:

• Deciding what’s urgent, what important and what you want to do but can wait.
• Get your job list out of your head and down on paper – create a “to-do” list.
• Group similar tasks together.
• Figure out how you will deal with distractions.
• Get to work.

4. Understand Adversity

Adversity is when we face hardship, difficulty, misfortune, or an overall tough time during specific periods in life. Sometimes trouble can get us off track or distract us from achieving goals. Everyone faces adversity at some point in their lives.

Understanding how adversity will impact us, can help us foresee what we must do, how we should plan for it when it comes. By thinking forward about our potential adversities and understanding how we’ll react when they come, will keep us on track when the disruptions inevitably come.

Related: Link Between Self-Control and Success

5. Remove Distractions

Distractions can be anything from your cell phones, your neighbor’s lawnmower to social media notifications. Understanding how distractions affect you and can keep you from performing your job are essential.

However, more important than recognizing distractions is removing them. If necessary, put your phone in another room while you work. If you are working from home, you can set a kitchen clock for the amount of time you want to work without distraction.

The trick is to remove the distraction or temptation long before it happens. Removing distractions is a habit that puts you in control of uninterrupted time to work towards your goals.

6. Know Your Weaknesses

We all have weaknesses. Sometimes they are self-imposed, temptations, and other times they are triggers. However, when we are honest about our weaknesses and the things we struggle with, we understand how to keep ourselves out of certain situations and create habits of self-discipline.

Learning how to build self-discipline helps those confronted with situations that may work against their goals. They are honest with themselves and continuously work towards success.

Related: Best Books on Building Discipline

7. Use An Accountability Partner

Accountability is taking responsibility for your life and your goals. Having an accountability friend is about more than someone to cosign all your thoughts and actions. They don’t just pat you on the back when you reach goals. An accountability friend brings positivity into your life with positive reactions. Other benefits of an accountability friend are:

Give a different perspective on your goals.
An accountable friend can serve as an independent eyewitness of your goals and how being self-disciplined guides your decisions.

Helps you stay motivated.
An accountability friend is like having your cheerleader. They encourage you to keep going.

Helps you strategize and plan.
Accountability friends are uniquely suited to help you strategize and plan out your goals. They allow you to understand how your plan to get from point A to point B is attainable.

Serves as a reminder.
An accountable friend is more powerful than a vision board. They are vocal advocates for your goals and will remind you why you are on a particular path.

Other Benefits of Self-Discipline

Self-discipline gives you the strength to persevere, helps you stay motivated, and keeps you from giving in to negative thoughts and feelings. It is that ability you have to make yourself do what needs to be done, even when you don’t want to do them.

There are numerous other benefits of developing and using self-discipline. Benefits like the following:

• You are more likely to achieve long-term goals.
• It promotes academic success.
• It helps you maintain focus.
• It makes you mentally healthier.
• You feel more resilient.
• You feel happier.
• It helps you make better decisions.

Bonus Resource for Discipline

Alright, here’s one last resource to help you build your discipline. It’s a short video that gives a handful of extremely helpful tips that will undoubtedly help you on your journey to master self-discipline. Enjoy!

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Final Thoughts on Building Self-Discipline

As mentioned earlier, choosing to build self-discipline takes thoughtful and intentional work that is essential for success in nearly every phase of life and has several benefits, among them promoting academic success, making you mentally healthy, and helping you feel healthier.

Related: Inspiring Discipline Quotes

While developing self-discipline is about more than just cutting bad habits, it is an attainable trait. There are many ways to develop self-discipline, but these seven daily habits are probably the best place to start.

These habits are setting small goals daily, keeping your goals in your face where you can see them, learning how to prioritize goals, understanding adversity and ways to deal with it, knowing your weaknesses, and getting yourself an accountability partner. Once you make these daily habits a part of your life, you will have achieved the discipline to knock just about all of your goals out of the park.

Till you reach your aims,

STRIVE

PS – If you enjoyed this article on how to build self-discipline, then there’s a good chance you’ll love this article on the link between self-discipline and happiness.

Have you ever asked yourself, “What is an affirmation, or what are affirmations?” Or, have you ever wondered why you should use them, and how? If so, then this article is for you, as it will thoroughly cover what is an affirmation, why you should use them, and how you can use affirmations to actually improve your life.

What is an Affirmation?

So, if you are new to affirmations, here is the first thing you need to know about them — daily affirmations are to the mind what body-building is to the body. In short, affirmations are simply a method to sculpt your mind to your liking.

Affirmations are self-suggestions, self-suggestions that help your subconscious mind believe a certain thing about yourself and your world.

The origination of the word affirmation tells you most of what you need to know about them. The word affirmation stems from the Latin word affirmare, which simply means “to make steady, strengthen.”

As such, when you practice an affirmation — which typically involves reciting a phrase to yourself repeatedly — you are in essence fortifying and strengthening the thoughts and beliefs that you want your mind to have. That said, let’s dig in a little bit deeper with this guide to affirmations:

A HELFPUL GUIDE TO AFFIRMATIONS

So, who should use affirmations and why? Well, anyone who is seeking to positively improve a specific aspect of their lives should use affirmations.

Affirmations are magnificent tools to help you affect change quickly. In a sense, when you use them, it is much like changing the software in a computer. A computer’s capabilities are limited by its software, but if you change or upgrade the software, it can do more than it could before.

This same concept applies to people as well, except we change our software by choosing to change what information we put in our brains. And affirmations is a form of data upload that rewrites old thought patterns that no longer server your best interests.

So, what are affirmations? They are programming, personal programming. And you get to choose the program.

Ground Rules on How to Use Affirmations

Now, affirmations may be simple, but there are also a few ground rules you should follow if you want to get the most out of the affirmations you use.

Believe

The first thing you’ll want to ensure, is that you believe in the affirmation you are reciting. In short, you have to have a certain amount of faith that what you are saying is true, and/or that it will become true.

“Just Believe There Is Genuine Creative Magic In Believing, And Magic There Will Be, For Belief Will Supply The Power Which Will Enable You To Succeed In Everything You Undertake.”

– claude m. bristol –

It is critical that you believe what you affirm is possible, because once you do, it becomes plausible. However, if you don’t believe in the possibility of your affirmation, you cement in that negative thought, which will guarantee an ineffective affirmation.

The good news is, if you faith is weak, you can use an affirmation to strengthen your faith in affirmations. And once you do that, well, then you world affirmations is your oyster.

That said, if you’re still on the fence about affirmations and if you’re wondering if they even work, then you may want to first brush up on this very informative resource: “Do Affirmations Work?“

Present Tense

The next ground rule you want to ensure you implement with your affirmations is that they are in the present tense. One of the best ways to do this is through the use of the words “I am” before each affirmation.

Here are a few examples of present tense affirmations:

• I am persistent and consistent.
• I am smart with my money.
• I am disciplined.
• I focus my thoughts and energy on being positive.

By using the present tense with your affirmations, you’ll have an easier time convincing your subconscious mind that what you are saying is true. In other words, it will minimize cognitive dissonance.

Positive Tense

Using positive affirmations is the best way to get the most out of your affirmations. When you affirm the positive, i.e. that you are something vs. not something, it is easier for your mind to accept. However, if you use affirmations in a negative tense, they will shift your mindset towards negativity and become less effective.

“A Person Who Is Self-reliant, Positive, Optimistic, And Undertakes His Work With The Assurance Of Success Magnetizes His Condition. He Draws To Himself The Creative Powers Of The Universe.”

– norman vincent peale –

Now, if your affirmations look like the sample below, they are in a negative tense:

• I will stop worrying so much.
• I will not over eat anymore.
• I will no longer accept less than the best for my life.
• I am not an insecure person.

Thus, if you want to guarantee the most effective use of your affirmations, ensure you recite ones in the positive tense.

Consistency

Last but not least, affirmations require consistent use. No, you don’t have to apply them forever, but they do require consistency in the beginning to help your mind change it’s thought patterns.

So, how often should you use affirmations? Well, as a best practice, you should recite affirmations at least a few times a day. In the morning when you wake up is ideal, just before or after lunch time is a good practice as well, and just before you head off to bed.

Here’s a bonus tip on the best time to use an affirmation: You ready for it? You can and should use an affirmation any time you notice your thoughts drifting towards something negative. For example:

• Feeling a sinking feeling in your gut due to doubt? Recite an affirmation.
• Feeling nervous about something at work or in your personal life? Recite an affirmation.
• Feeling worried about a loved one? Recite an affirmation.
• Feeling depressed due to a particular circumstance in your life? Recite an affirmation.

One final thing to keep in mind about affirmations, is that you should notice them working to a certain degree after applying them for at least a week consistently. However, you’ll find them to be most effective after consistently and diligently affirming them for at least a month.

Quick Summary of The Ground Rules

Alright, we’ve covered a lot about how you should go about using affirmations. To help it stick, here’s a quick summary of the ground rules to ensure you get the best results from your affirmations:

• Suspend Disbelief and Believe
• Ensure Affirmation is in a Present Tense
• Ensure Affirmation is in a Positive Tense
• Be Consistent With Your Use (3 Times a Day, One Week to a Month)
• Bonus Tip: Use Affirmation to Crowd Out Any Negative Thoughts

Final Thoughts

Affirmations can truly help just about anyone change their life. They have been used by Olympic champions, professional athletes, high performance coaches, and some of the most successful people the world over. Don’t believe us? Here a handful of notable people who swear by them:

• Tony Robbins (High Performance Coach)
• Denzel Washington (Award-Winning Actor)
• Napoleon Hill (Best-Selling Author of Think and Grow Rich)
• Conor McGregor (UFC Fighter)
• Will Smith (Award-Winning Actor)
• Kanye West (Award-Winning Rapper, Producer, Designer, Etc..)
• Bob Proctor (Best-Selling Author & Motivational Speaker)
• Jack Canfield (Best-Selling Author & Motivational Speaker)
• Muhammad Ali (Greatest Boxer of All-Time)

With that being said, we hope we’ve convinced you on the merits of affirmations. But most importantly, we hope we successfully answered your questions as to what affirmations are, and why you should use them.

If you’re looking for a few solid affirmations to get you started on using them, be sure to check one of these out:

• Affirmations for Success
• Affirmations for Discipline
• Affirmations for Confidence
• Affirmations for Entrepreneurs
• Affirmations for Money

Lastly, if you found this resource valuable, please consider sharing it with someone who could benefit from the knowledge. The more people who know about the power of affirmations and use them the better. Because better minds creates better people, and better people create a better world.

Till you reach your aims,

STRIVE

PS – If you enjoyed our answer to the question about what are affirmations, then you’ll likely enjoy this post on the very similar and powerful practice of mantras.

Do you have an abundance mindset? If you’re not sure, but want to find out whether you have one or not, and how to develop one if you don’t, then this post is for you.

With that being said, it’s a common belief that the richest people in the world hold the most power. However, we’d like to challenge that thought. We believe those who an abundance mindset have the most power.

Why you ask? Because there’s always the chance that a rich person could lose all of their money. And, if they have an abundance mindset, they’d very easily be able to earn all back. Which is why true wealth and power lie in a mindset, especially an abundance mindset – as this can never be lost. 

Essentially, having an abundance mindset is about seeing possibilities and plenty vs. limits and shortcomings. It’s a mindset that demonstrates how you attract what you focus on, and can create something from nothing. So, let’s take a closer look at the abundance mindset and see if we can inspire enough to develop yours. 

What Is an Abundance Mindset?

The abundance mentality was first introduced in the book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey in 1989. Covey, an American businessman, defined it very simply – a concept in which a person believes there are enough resources and successes to share with others. People who have an abundance mindset think that the world’s resources are enough for everyone. 

The author contrasted the concept of abundance with scarcity. If we compare the abundance mindset vs. scarcity mindset, the latter implies destructive and unnecessary competition. In other words, it means that when someone else wins, you lose. Such people tend to think that there is no chance of all parties winning in a given situation.

Ever since Covey introduced the theory, fostering an abundance mindset has become recognized as a key component of spiritual and personal development. We can say that an abundance of health is a trigger of prosperity in all possible ways. 

But, what kind of prosperity can abundance living bring? People with this mindset have a more meaningful life. They are satisfied by their means of living and aren’t caged by limits. When we say limits, we mean the subconscious barriers that people create inside their minds. Even though they aren’t real, many of us consider these limits to be real obstacles keeping us from achieving our goals. 

Besides the absence of limits, those who live an abundant life feel confident, secure, and less anxious. With an abundant mindset, you believe that life provides opportunities for everyone – so there is no need for you to stress out.

Such beliefs impact one’s mindset and behavior. The latter is the consequence of the former. When you believe that opportunities await you, you are utilizing them. Therefore, those with an abundance mentality take full advantage of the chances that lie on their path.

Here are 15 signs that you may be a person with an abundance mindset: 

15 Signs Proving That You Have a Mindset of Abundance

1. No Playing Snatch and Grab

If you hear about the possibility of a product shortage, you don’t panic. Some people immediately run to the supermarket and grab dozens of that product off that shelf – but not you.

You are sure that there will be enough to meet your needs and the needs of others. You are even willing to share with those who may not have enough! In short, you have those thoughts of scarcity and panic under control.

2. You Are Grateful for What You Have

Abundance mindset books state that such a type of mindset is wired for the feeling of gratitude. Conversely, those with a scarcity mentality typically have “wishful thinking.” This means they believe that other people are luckier and, thus, more successful.

But since you have an abundant mindset, you realize that life does not bestow luck upon people – we manifest our own dreams into reality. 

3. You Always Share

In addition to being grateful for what you have, you don’t mind sharing your blessings. This makes generosity one of the key features of an abundance mentality.

With an abundance mindset, you believe that giving leads to receiving: the more you give, the more you receive.

4. Other People’s Success Is a Reason for Your Genuine Happiness

When somebody has a victory, you don’t feel a spark of jealousy. Instead, you feel true happiness for them. Other people aren’t your opponent. You don’t compete against humanity – you only compete against yourself.

In fact, you know you have an abundance mindset when seeing other people succeed and get rich actually inspires you. You get inspired, but remember that your true goal is simply to be better than you were yesterday, and that you’re making progress on your dreams. 

5. “I Am” Instead of “I Will”

Even though you have ambitions for the future, you don’t ignore the opportunities and happiness of the present. With an abundance mindset, you realize that you already have all the tools you need for a wealthy and powerful life. 

6. You Go With the Flow

When something doesn’t go according to plan, you don’t freak out. Rather than living in fear of things going wrong, you go with the flow. Life can be a funny thing, full of unexpected twists and turns.

Rather than being anxious over the unknown, you embrace it. This is one of the main mindset goals of abundant people – to overcome fear.

7. You Believe That You Are Worthy of Good Things

Part of living a fear-free life includes believing that you are deserving of a good life. If you believe that you are unworthy, then you will always be fearful of the rug being ripped out from underneath you.

But with an abundance mindset, you anticipate good things happening. You are grateful, but not surprised when you are successful. 

8. You Are Ambitious

Speaking of success, you don’t just lie around and wait for it to happen. You set goals; you know your objectives. You dare to dream big every day.

That’s one of the most effective abundance mindset exercises for those who want to abandon the scarcity mentality. You have to forget about barriers inside your mind and open it up for big dreams. 

9. You Are Not Jealous

Another facet of the abundance mindset is that you don’t become embittered by other people’s accomplishments. You understand that your goals will be accomplished, just as your peers fulfilled their own dreams. If you feel that envy in your core, that’s a sign that you are still operating in a scarcity mindset, rather than one of abundance. 

10. You Focus on Good Things Rather Than Bad

Similar to a lack of jealousy, an abundance mentality excludes pessimism. Such people don’t focus on possible negative consequences or anything else that has a pessimistic tone. Instead, they have a positive attitude and a healthy perspective on life. 

Here’s an example of a positive perspective: let’s say a person has an abundance mindset for dating. They have a date tonight, but – oh no! It has started to rain! Rather than being upset by the rain, a person with an abundance mindset will be excited. Perhaps the rain will deepen the romantic atmosphere. Maybe they can even dance in the rain. By focusing on a positive outcome, it will become a reality

11. You Enjoy the Luxury of Time

Some people are rich but have no time to enjoy their successes. They die rich, without ever having truly lived. We believe that you are wealthy if you can enjoy the luxury of time.

Savor every second of your time on Earth – this mindset is the key to a meaningful life. 

12. You Freely Navigate Through Your Life

Part of enjoying life includes being open to trying new things and saying yes to opportunities. You know that life will provide for your needs, which is why you are open to making radical changes, exploring new facets, and creating unforgettable memories. You embrace the moment without growing anxious over negative consequences. 

13. You Have Peace of Mind

This goes hand-in-hand with the previous point; you understand that life will always provide you with what you need, no matter which path you take. You are at peace knowing that everything will be okay.

This will lead not only to a happier life but also to better mental and physical health. Anxiety can manifest itself in physical ailments, so it is best to cut out anxiety at its core: fear. 

14. You Are in The Driver’s Seat

While you understand that life will provide for your needs, you also take full responsibility for your own actions. If you come across hardships, you understand that it isn’t due to fate.

In fact, you don’t really give much of a thought to fate at all! That’s because you are in the driver’s seat, in full control of your life and success. On the other hand, people who have a scarcity mindset will blame others, their environment, and even luck for any hardships. 

15. You Acknowledge the Power of Your Thoughts

You know that your thoughts are very powerful. You believe that they shape your present and future life; therefore, you don’t give negative thoughts a chance to survive. You take responsibility for your mind and thoughts and use them wisely to create a bright future.

For example, when you acknowledge the power of your thoughts, you’ll avoid worrying about daily annoyances, petty worries, or even more serious issues, like legal problems, cause you might just create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

How to Develop an Abundance Mindset 

If these 15 points didn’t seem familiar to you, there’s no need to worry. It’s more than possible to develop an abundance mindset. Humans have the ability to shape their minds and thoughts. Therefore, it’s just a matter of time and effort.

As such, the secret to developing an abundance mentality lies in a mindset shift. And a mindset shift is possible for the person who is willing to actively work towards creating new healthy habits. With that said, here are just a few ways that you can begin building an abundance mindset for yourself today:

• Avoid Negative Thoughts – To fill your mind with positive, wealthy thoughts, you have to free up space for them. Therefore, it’s time to stop any pessimistic thinking and start taking responsibility for your life.
• Carry Out Regular Mindset Training – Work on eliminating the barriers you’ve set up in your mind. Dare to dream big. Dare to imagine the unimaginable. Develop a belief that you deserve the best, and life will give it to you, as well as to others.
• Try Abundance Meditation – Changing your mindset is hard, but meditation is an effective tool. This helps you connect to your inner self and unleash your inherent power.
• Use Affirmations – Affirmations can help you rewire your mind, and minimize self-defeating thoughts. Give them a try, and you’ll be amazed at the changes they’ll bring to your outlook.

“Abundance is Not Something We Acquire, it is Something We Tune Into.”

– Wayne Dyer –

Although it may take a bit of time to develop an abundance mindset, it’s worth it. Prosperity, positivity, and wealth are only some of its benefits.

So, give these practical mindset tips a spin, have faith in them, and then sit back and watch how things begin to dramatically improve for you.

Till then,

STRIVE

PS – If you enjoyed this abundance mentality article, then you’ll love this resource that provides a handful of powerful ways to change your mindset, and you may even enjoy this collection of abundance affirmations to kickstart the process.

When you were a teenager, you may have kept a diary or journal hidden under your mattress. Many teenagers religiously manage sticker-covered notebooks with locks and keys in hopes their siblings, friends, or (God forbid) parents would never find them. Either way, you or some one you know has likely had some kind of a history with keeping a journal, either on paper or on your computer.

For many people, journaling on a piece of paper is the perfect place to face our fears and issues without the risk of punishment or embarrassment. Getting all those thoughts down to paper and out of your head can feel incredibly cathartic and liberating.

Unfortunately, most of us stop keeping a journal as we transition into adulthood. But we shouldn’t stop. We shouldn’t stop because regardless of age, there are immense benefits to journaling, especially when it comes to building our confidence. So, if you’ve stopped journaling, but you want or need a good nudge to starting journaling again, then let’s dive into these handful of benefits of journaling for confidence.

THE BENEFITS OF JOURNALING FOR CONFIDENCE

Note: We are not professional healthcare providers: So, if you struggle with mental health like depression, stress or anxiety disorders, keeping a journal is a useful idea, but it doesn’t substitute for professional medical care. So, if your mental health is severe, please seek the assistance of professional healthcare provider.

1. Positive Mental Health Impact

Let’s start with the most powerful, but the least obvious of the many benefits of journaling for confidence: it drastically improves your quality of life. Journaling lets you regain control over your emotions, which in turns give you much more stable mental health. Here are just some of the ways journaling helps keep depression or other mental health issues at bay:

• it lets you track your symptoms on a daily basis
• it improves mood
• it allows you to recognize patterns and triggers for your mental health issues
• promotes positive self-talk
• tackles negative thoughts and patterns through a more objective perspective
• drastically reduces stress levels

The highest impact on stress levels is boosted by the fact that journaling allows you to identify problems and patterns that repeat on a daily basis. You can use this knowledge to avoid or tackle these issues to reduce your stress levels. Journaling is, according to psychologists, one of the healthiest coping mechanisms for people suffering from high stress levels.

It’s also a great routine to introduce before your bed time. If you have issues with falling asleep due to intrusive thoughts that pop up in your head, journaling can significantly help you get some of those thoughts out of your head. You wouldn’t believe how easier and smaller a problem seems once you put it down to paper.

2. Benefits for Physical Health

It sounds crazy, but journaling can also improve your physical functions and make you healthier. According to a study that carried out a four-month period of expressive writing (journaling) showed that short periods of journaling several times per day lower blood pressure and can even improve liver functions.

Other studies have shown that journaling boosts the immune system, and can even help heal wounds faster. Plus, when you look better, and feel better about your health, you’ll exude a more positive aura, which will help you look and feel more confident (to yourself and others.)

3. Better Memory and Focus

Another one of the benefits of journaling is its impact on your memory and focus. When you write on a daily basis, it’s like a mental exercise for your focusing capacities. Journaling every day will keep you sharp and bright. You will be able to remember small events from your life much more easily.

Ultimately, you will learn how to remember the important things by separating them from the irrelevant.

It can also help you unlock the highest levels of creativity. Many first-time journalers are amazed at the expressive power they manage to exhibit when they find themselves in front of a blank piece of paper for the first time.

Related: Ways To Start Believing In Yourself

4. Journaling For Confidence

The majority of people suffer from low self-confidence. It’s a condition that has a seriously debilitating effect on everyday life. However, there’s a paradox here: no one can improve their quality of life if they do not believe they are capable of doing it.

This applies to all aspects of life. That is why writing a journal will allow you to increase your confidence. So, when you begin to increase your self-esteem, you will feel different in various areas of your life. You will probably feel that you have all the skills necessary to improve your quality of life.

On the other hand, if you do not respect yourself, then there is no reason to improve your quality of life. Here’s my tip. Go ahead, grab one of those cheap composition books, find a place where you’re at peace, and start.

Write where do you want to be and what are your goals. The next day, turn your journal to a new page and write how you feel in that exact moment. Spend the next few days thinking, feeling, and writing about the future and the present moment. Whenever you catch time, turn to a fresh page and continue writing. Over the next days, continue searching for your inner self-confidence, for the strength to do, believe, and speak. It doesn’t matter if it’s about small things or big things.

5. More Gratitude

What is important here is to include everything that had a positive impact on you. It is also a good time to remember those people who made you feel good. Write down a compliment that you get, or what positive action they had with you. You can also add things you have learned and enjoyed.

By writing down each of these experiences, you will be able to remember them and therefore enjoy them again in a certain sense. Without a doubt, these positive thoughts will improve your self-esteem. However, you can also write messages for yourself by writing about your best qualities. Each of the qualities you name will be strengthened as well because you will be recognizing them.

So, one of last benefits of journaling is that is also increases mindfulness and self-awareness. The act of writing things down allows you to be more aware of your life and behavior. Increasing the self-awareness of your emotions leads to more self-confidence.

Why? Because now you have a choice. You get to be in control of your actions instead of going through the motions without thinking about it. The result of all of this is a stronger self-confidence.

Conclusion

Journaling is good for you on several levels – the physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual. It allows you to tap into the best version of yourself and start building upwards from there.

When you keep a journal, you get to know yourself all over again, which will ultimately improve your confidence. These days, many of us form our opinions about ourselves depending on what the media tells us or how closet to us treat us.

However, it goes much deeper than that. In order to find deep and lasting self-love, you have to know yourself well. And there is no better way to do that than by keeping a journal. If you manage to keep one for several years, you will even be able to witness the progression of your character and all the events in your life from a bird’s eye view.

So, if you’re not currently journaling for confidence, go out and get yourself a journal and get started today. Your more confident future self will thank you for it.

Till you reach your aims,

STRIVE

PS – If you enjoyed this article on the benefits of journaling for confidence, then you’ll also enjoy these other helpful resources related to both journaling and confidence:

• Confidence Affirmations
• Best Journals
• Confidence Books