5 Steps for Making Affirmations Work for You

The powerful technique of affirmations has helped thousands of people obtain everything they desire. Many people practice positive affirmations daily, but not everyone manages to benefit. Affirmations work a lot like visualization and setting goals. If you practice affirmations but aren't enjoying the results, then you are probably doing something wrong. Here are five simple steps for making affirmations work for you.

Step #1 – You Must Feel It

Many people don't see results from their daily affirmations because they are merely doing it for the sake of doing it. They aren't associating any emotions or feelings with their affirmations. If you want your affirmations to work for you, then you have to include positive feeling words in your affirmations. When you can feel the emotions, your affirmations will become much more powerful and effective.

Step #2 – Repetition is Key

You will never achieve significant results by taking a single step. The same principle also applies to your affirmations. You have to practice them every day if you want to make them real. You can't just do it once and then forget about it. You have to repeat your affirmations every day until it becomes a habit. When your affirmations become habits, only then will you start seeing the results.

Step #3 – Turn Your Affirmations Into Your Habit

If you want to get the most out of your positive affirmations, you have to turn the practice into a habit. This means that you should repeat your statements at the same time every day. The best times to practice your affirmations is once in the morning and once before you go to sleep. Repeating your affirmations right before you go to sleep at night, helps your subconscious mind continue to work on what you want in your life.

Step #4 – Belief That it Will Happen

Most people will do their affirmations, but they don't believe that they are going to get what they desire. If you don't believe in something, you will never put in the effort required to obtain it. You will never take action. Your beliefs define your action, and when you believe that you are going to achieve it, you will do whatever it takes to get it. 

Step #5 – Commit and Take Action

If you want your affirmations to work for you, then you have to put in your commitment to achieving what you want. If you want to have a slim body, then you have to be committed to that outcome and take action by working out and eating better.

If you want your affirmations to work for you, then you have to be determined that they will. Practice your affirmations daily, with feeling and emotion, and you'll be amazed at how quickly your desires are manifested.

Written by Yola Bastos Co-Founder Women Flix 

 yolabastos@womenflix.org 

 https://linktr.ee/yolatvbastos 

 Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success! 

 Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, was incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ).

The Inspiring Story of How Sylvester Stallone Went After His Dreams and What We All Can Learn From It

We all have goals and dreams that seem a little far fetched. Sometimes we hardly even admit them to ourselves, but then when we lie awake at night and we dream about the thing we always wanted to be. And we assume it can never happen…

Well, I am of the belief that you really can make anything happen as long as you have the determination and as long as you never give up. Sometimes it means working incredibly hard and sometimes it means taking the less obvious route to get what you want.

And to demonstrate, consider the case of Sylvester Stallone…

• How Stallone Landed His star-making Role, Despite Everything

If you’ve ever looked at someone highly successful and wished you could swap place with them, consider that they weren’t born that way – and that maybe they once thought the very same thing.

At the ripe age of 30, Sylvester Stallone had only $106 to his name and had been forced to sell his dog, Butkus. Those are some hard times.

Sly always wanted to be a film star but whenever he applied for roles, he would be turned down on the basis of his slurring voice and his heavy stature. He was considered only for roles like ‘thug 1’, never starring roles.

So Stallone stopped trying the same thing and instead turned to something else he was good at writing. Sly wrote the script for Rocky allegedly in a single night (though he returned to edit the draft many times) and submitted it to a producer after an audition that didn’t go that well.

The studios loved the story of the spunky underdog who came good and they offered him $300,000 to make the movie – roughly the equivalent of $1 million today! Remember: Sly has $106 in his accounts right now. But he turned them down and said he would only let them make the movie if he could star.

The studio was reluctant and offered more and more money. Eventually, they agreed to his terms but only on the proviso that he would take minimal pay and would have a tiny budget to work with on the movie. The rest, as they say, is history.

• What We Can Learn

The first thing we can learn from this is that it’s never too late to be what you always wanted to be. You might be jealous of other people right now but you’re probably on the right course – just stick with it!

The other lesson to take here is to stick to your guns – to know what you want and accept nothing less. Had Sly taken the $300,000, none of us would know his name today.

And finally, don’t always take the most obvious route to the top. If you’re not having any luck going the obvious way, then come up with a new strategy and get creative! There is more than one way to every destination. 

Written by Yola Bastos
yolabastos@womenflix.org
https://linktr.ee/LifeCoachWomenFlix  
Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  
Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

Some ‘Impossible Goals’ and How to Make Them Happen

 

Many of us have goals and dreams that sound impossible and that other people will perhaps tell us can’t be done. Sometimes, those goals are so preposterous that we don’t tell anyone at all – and in some cases, we’ll hardly even admit those goals to ourselves!

For example, if you have always dreamed of being a film star, then there’s a good chance that on some level you don’t think it’s going to happen and so you won’t actually pursue it with the vigour that you should pursue it.

Likewise, if you always dreamed of being an astronaut, then you probably know it can’t be done and so won’t even try.

Except that this is entirely the wrong attitude. Rather, you should be working toward your goals but simply taking a different approach to making them possible. Because anything is truly possible, as long as you know how to think outside the box…

To demonstrate this, let’s take a look at some highly unlikely goals and see how you could really go about making them happen…

• Recording Artist

Want to be a pop star or a guitarist? Then how about starting your own music channel on YouTube? Perform your songs and build a following and then you could eventually start charging for your full albums through Band Camp and similar sites. It’s probably only a matter of time until someone offers to give you a recording contract once you have the numbers behind you!

• Bestselling Author

These days you don’t need to find a big publisher to become a bestselling author. Of course, that is one route to the top but another option is just to write your own book and publish it yourself.

This is possible today thanks to sites like Lulu. Lulu is a website that allows you to use ‘POD’ publishing, which in turn stands for ‘Print On Demand’. This means that you can create a book and only pay for the printing costs each time someone orders one of them. That means that you don’t have to order a huge number of books and then try to sell them – instead, you can simply start selling right away and you’ll just lose a fraction of the cover price each time you do. That also means you’re not splitting your profits with a publisher!

Of course, the downside is that you’ll have to do all of your own marketing and editing. But if you can do that, then you’re good to go!

• Astronaut

Always wanted to visit space? Then one way you can do that is to sign up for Virgin Galactic. That will give you a chance to visit space, without needing any training!

Now of course there is the chance that it will never happen, and it’s a lot of money too – you might just have to start saving. But the point is that as soon as you start working toward the goal you always dreamed of, life becomes a whole lot more exciting!

Written by Yola Bastos
yolabastos@womenflix.org
https://linktr.ee/LifeCoachWomenFlix  
Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  
Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

The Most Important Question to Always Ask: Does it Help Me Achieve My Goals?

Why do so many people not get what they want out of life?

Why do so many people find themselves falling into jobs they don’t really want? Or living places that don’t make them happy? Or with lifestyles that they find stressful?

How does someone go from dreaming of being a rock star to being locked in an office to enter data onto a spreadsheet?

Well, there are many factors. But it usually starts by not clearly defining your goals or what you want. Because until you know exactly what it is you actually want, how can you possibly expect to get it?

That means it isn’t good enough to decide you want to be ‘rich’, you need to know what you want to do to become rich. What kind of work you enjoy, how many hours you’re willing to work etc.

Likewise, if you hope to become a rock star, then you might want to think about how you actually intend to make that happen. What does being a ‘rock star’ entail for you and how are you going to make it happen? What would you settle for?

And when you make all these decisions, you need to ensure that this is truly what you’re passionate about – that your intended goal is something that you enjoy thinking about, enjoy working on and can’t wait to make a reality.

• The Simple Way to Make Decisions

The reason this is all so important is that it will then allow you to make all your future decisions that much more easily. This is going to act like your barometer and your road map, to help you to get to the end destination that you want. 

Now, whenever you find yourself making a decision, the question to ask is: does it help you achieve your goals?

So for instance, if you’re umming and having over buying an expensive piece of equipment, then the simplest way to decide if it is a good idea or not is to ask if it will help you to accomplish your goals. Likewise, if you’re unsure about where to live, or whether you should take a particular job opportunity, ask whether the decision is going to take you nearer or further from your goals.

The problem with many people who aren’t quite sure what they want is that their objectives end up on a kind of back burner and that other things seem to start getting in the way.

But if you really want to achieve something amazing – if you have a dream business idea that you really want to make happen – then you need to make this your priority and you need to change the way you think about everything else.

And it shouldn’t feel like a sacrifice either. Because if you really love what you’re working toward then it will mean fully embracing the thing you really want to be doing anyway. You just need to find what that passion is…

Written by Yola Bastos
yolabastos@womenflix.org
https://linktr.ee/LifeCoachWomenFlix  
Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  
Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

Why it’s Never too Late to be What You Always Wanted to Be

Many of us wanted to be amazing things when we were younger. Some of us wanted to be astronauts, some of us wanted to be rock stars and some of us wanted to be rock stars. Maybe you dreamed of owning your own business.

Then you reached your twenties and realized that achieving those dreams was harder than you thought and that you needed money faster. So you start working a regular job in the meantime. Then you reach 30 and have a spouse and kids. Then you reach 40 and realize you’re old and tired. And in short, you realize that you’re never going to be that thing you always wanted to be.

Dreams are for younger people, right?

• Why Dreams Get Easier, the Older You Get

This is certainly the stance taken by many people but in reality, the opposite should be true. As long as you hold on to those dreams, they actually often become more attainable the older you get.

Why? For starters, being older gives you more experience and means you’re going to have a better idea of how to go after what you want. Then there’s the fact that you’ll have had longer to accumulate useful assets. That includes money – you’ll have more funds to put behind you – but also other intangible and tangible assets such as property, contacts, a better CV etc.

And if you’re retired, or if your children have moved away from home, then you’ll have more time as well.

And if you combine all that with a savvy knowledge of how to leverage your age, there’s no reason that you can’t get things done even when you’re older.

• Some Examples…

Many people want to be actors for example but never get around to it when they’re younger. When you’re older, however, you have the option of applying to appear as an extra in films and to play bit parts. You have the time now to attend and the older you are, the more in-demand you’ll find you become for smaller roles. Build up a CV and who knows!

Or you could start a YouTube channel. Silver surfers make up a massive proportion of the web and there isn’t as much content there for them. You could make a fitness YouTube channel for over 50s for example and it would likely be a huge hit.

You’ll likewise have more time to write books and more time to pursue hobbies. And if you can’t become an astronaut (admittedly unlikely), then how about signing up for a Virgin Galactic flight? If you can’t be a football player, you could certainly maybe be a coach or join an older team.

And this post isn’t just for people in their 80s. It applies to those in their 40s too. Did you know that the average age for successful startup founders is 40? Did you know that you’re twice as likely to start a successful business at the age of 55 as you are at 20-34? 

Never give up. 

Written by Yola Bastos
yolabastos@womenflix.org
https://linktr.ee/yolatvbastos

Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  
Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

Yes! You Really Can Launch That Dream Start-Up Business

 

They say that all of us have a book in us but it’s also true that all of us have an idea in us. Nearly everyone will have at some point had an idea for a business, for a product, for an app, or for a service. We all have ideas that we think could make money, maybe even have a positive impact on the world.

The problem is that we don’t have the know-how to make it happen or the time. Or money.

So, the question then, is how you take that chance and how you build a business even if you don’t just so happen to have a ton of experience, financial backing and all the right contacts. Let’s take a look at what you need to do…

• Start Now!

The first thing to do is to start your business right now. Too many of us mistakenly make the assumption that we need to quit our current jobs and then put all of our resources, time and effort into our businesses. It’s ‘all or nothing’ and there’s no way you can start a business half-heartedly…

Except that’s not true. In fact, there’s no reason that you can’t start your business in the evenings and weekends. Even if you just start a ‘shell’ of your business, it’s better to test that the idea has legs before you invest a lot of time and money into it. 

Start a website in the evenings, start buying and selling shirts in small quantities with a small budget. Just start now and only once you know you can earn a full-time salary do you need to consider quitting your current job.

• Bootstrap

Another reason a lot of people hold themselves back from starting a dream business is that they don’t have the funds that they believe they need. If you’re planning on selling a product you invented for example, then you will probably make the assumption that you need to invest in a large order (called the MOQ – Minimum Order Quantity) to start.

In fact, though, you can once again get by without doing that. One way around the problem is to start your business with two revenue streams, or maybe three. Find a way to start raising capital through your other services or products and then only once you’re making more money do you invest in R&D or large bulk orders.

For instance, you might sell a hand-made product and use that money to invest in manufacturing!

Otherwise, you can also get funding in a range of other ways. How about Kickstarter? This way you can generate funds from the web and not even need to give away any of your equity! Or how about a PayPal loan that won’t impact your credit score?

• Fail Fast

Another tip is to create an MVP – or Minimal Viable Product – and to start trying to make money from it as soon as possible. This is simply a way to test your business model before you invest too much in it. Don’t make the mistake of investing in an idea that you have no proof will work and don’t put off getting your business up and running. You can refine it once you’re live!

Written by Yola Bastos
yolabastos@womenflix.org
https://linktr.ee/yolatvbastos
Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  
Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

How To Stay Positive In Stressful Situations

Sometimes nothing seems to turn out the way you had planned, no matter how hard you attempt. Regardless of where the stress is stemming from, it is essential to equip yourself with resources to rise above the negativity and stay positive. Maintaining a positive attitude can help alleviate stress and assist in accomplishing your objectives. When you feel like you have hit a dead end, and start to sense any negativity, stop! Here are a few tips on how to remain positive even when you are in challenging situations.

Count your blessings

Regardless of how rough things are, if you think about it, you have lots of things to be grateful for. Whether it’s having a job when a lot of people are jobless, having a supportive family, or simply being in a good health. By revisiting everything you have in your life, you can’t hold on to the negativities. You will feel confident, proud and positive. There are countless things in your life that you can be thankful for.

Reward yourself

When you achieve something, regardless of how little it is, pat yourself in the back for the job well done. The list of ways that you can reward yourself is endless. You can reward yourself with new opportunities to explore something new or to learn something new. You can even take your friends out for coffee. A positive attitude can hardly arise if you don’t even feel great about yourself.

Exercise regularly 

Another great way to manage stress and remain positive is by exercising on a regular basis. If you don't exercise, try to find something that you enjoy doing such as swimming, biking, playing golf, playing tennis, or going for a walk. Breathing exercise can also help alleviate stress. Breathing has been proven to help manage stress and can help a lot in countless situations.

Take time out

If all you think about is work, you can easily be overwhelmed by stress. Be sure to give yourself time off and read a book, listen to music or do whatever it is that you find relaxing. You can also go out with your family and friends. This will help you remain focused and positive when you are at your work station. You will ultimately thank yourself for it.

There you have it! How to always stay positive in a challenging environment. While you will not alleviate stress overnight, following these simple steps will help you develop and maintain a good attitude about your family, your work and your life.

Written by Yola Bastos
yolabastos@womenflix.org
https://linktr.ee/LifeCoachWomenFlix  
Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  
Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ).