Knowing how to write an effective affirmation statement can be difficult with all of the often conflicting information out there. Affirmations can be a powerful tool for changing your life, but one expert will say to write them one way; another expert will say that their method is the best. How would you know who is really correct? It’s hard to say which method is the best because everyone is different. What works well for you may not work as well for somebody else. Fortunately, even with all the different methods available, it is possible to find a few common areas that almost everyone seems to agree on.

These common areas are the basics of writing an effective affirmation. You really don’t need to follow a long set of rules to come up with an effective affirmation statement. If you stick with these following guidelines, you should be able to come up with something that will work well for you.

First Figure out What You Want

Before you begin working on writing an effective affirmation, you need to figure out what you want. If you already know the answer to that question, please feel free to skip down to the next section.
Maybe you’re not sure about what results you would like in your life. This is common so don’t feel bad. In order to figure out what you want, it’s often much easier to start by looking at what isn’t working well for you right now. You can then figure out how you would like things to be instead.

On a sheet of paper draw a line down the middle, going from the top to the bottom of the sheet. On the left side, write what you’re not happy with in each of the following areas of your life. Try to be as specific as possible.

• Finances
• Relationships (with yourself and others)
• Health
• Career or business
• Emotions and Attitude
• Spirituality

Now, on the right side of the sheet, across from each item on the left side, write down what you want instead. So if one of your list items on the left side was something like “I only make $25,000 a year and it isn’t enough to pay for what I want,” on the right side you would write how much money you think you need to make to be able to pay for what you want.

If you’re still not sure what you want, you might try writing down something along the lines of “I want to be clear about what I want.”Now that you’ve got your list, pick 5 items from the right side of the sheet that you desire the most in your life right now.

Done? Excellent!

Now you’re ready to tweak that wish list into effective affirmation statements. Take each of the 5 items from your list and reword each one according to the steps below.

6 Easy Steps to Writing Effective Affirmation Statements

1. Begin with the words “I am,” which are very powerful. Your subconscious brain takes those words as a command to begin working on whatever follows those two words.
2. Keep it in the present. You want your subconscious mind to see your goal as existing. If you phrase it in the future tense, you’re training your subconscious to keep you in a state of waiting for something to come. Here’s an example: “I am energetic and alive at my ideal weight of 175.”
3. Keep it Positive. Remember we’re talking about positive affirmations here. To create an effective affirmation, state what you want. Your subconscious mind thinks in pictures, so you want to avoid thinking about what you don’t want. For example, if you state that you are no longer sick, you probably still get a picture in your mind of you being sick. Rephrase it to say what you want instead. If you want to be healthy, say so. Try something like “I am healthy and energetic. My body is in perfect working order.”
4. Keep it short. Just because it’s easier to remember that way.
5. Be Specific. It’s hard for your brain to work on making something real if the goal is fuzzy. It’s also hard for you to measure how far you’ve come in achieving your goal if you’re not specific about what you desire. Specifying 175 in your weight goal, for example, is better than simply saying you want to be slimmer.
6. Put some Emotion into it. What would it feel like to achieve your goal? Try to come up with one or two key emotions and include those in your affirmation. If you look again at the weight example above, you’ll notice it included the feelings energetic and alive. If you’re having trouble figuring out exactly what it would feel like, just use the words happy and grateful. Example: “I am so happy and grateful now that I’ve reached my goal of weighing 175.”

Have you got your list of affirmations ready? Perfect! Now that you know how to write an effective affirmation, you’re ready to learn how to use your affirmations for maximum effect.