Written by: Stacy Sare Cohen
You’re a woman who thinks outside the box. You’re armed with ideas that the world needs – and you’re ready to crush it and live your dreams. The idea of punching a timeclock from 9 to 5 quashes your spirit and dulls your creative inspiration.
You dream of being your own boss, earning big money, and creating a sense of freedom for your life. You want to do more of the things you love with the people who matter the most.
Having an employer call the shots and dictate every move you make – like when you can take a vacation, and for how long – goes against the grain of who you were meant to be. You’re a female entrepreneur on a mission with a clear vision of how you want to live your life and make the world a better place. And you deserve to be compensated well for it.
Then you meet the naysayers.
“What if you fail,” says your Aunt Harriet? “Why don’t you go to school and get a stable job as a nurse at the hospital or a secretary with good health benefits, maybe a pension, and work your way up the ladder,” she says. You’re tempted to tell her the business world has changed, but you know it won’t make a difference. She won’t understand.
You reflect on what she said for a moment, shrug it off, and go about your day. You’re ready to take the leap from employee to entrepreneur – and you feel awesome.
You’re bootstrapped for cash, so you teach yourself some new skills, build an attractive, functional website, make some connections on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Insta, and gather some leads. You subscribe to an accounting platform to handle your invoices. You’re getting traction – and clients.
Then one week everything slows down.
After a month – still radio silence. Your leads and clients stop calling, messaging, and emailing you. Your Google analytics plummet, and you wonder what could’ve happened. “Why aren’t I making headway,” you ask yourself?
In creeps the self-doubt. You begin second-guessing yourself. “Did I make the wrong decision? Was Aunt Harriet, right?”
Stop right there! You need to check your mindset. It’s time for a positive affirmations mindset makeover.
How Positive Affirmations Energize Your Brain
If you haven’t heard about the Louise Hay movement or been in psychotherapy, you might be unfamiliar with positive affirmations. Positive affirmations are positive statements you repeat to yourself every day to fight negative thoughts and feelings. Affirmations shift your beliefs to a positive mindset. What you might not know about positive affirmations is that they’re a science.
Scientists have taken a big interest in how positive affirmations affect the brain. The name for this science? Self-affirmation theory.
Self-affirmation theory is rooted in the idea that people are innately motivated to have a positive view of themselves. They want to have a positive self-image and act with integrity. Because of these desires, people resist anything that threatens their self-competence.
But when we do face these threats and challenges, positive affirmations rooted in our core values can restore our sense of self-competence. They keep negative emotions and thoughts in check.
Simply put, when affirmations are practiced regularly, they reinforce self-worth.
And the results show up in brain imaging scans. In a study where participants used affirmations grounded in their core values, the regions of the brain that measure self-processing (medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex) showed increased activity. Yet, the brains of the participants that didn’t practice self-affirmations remained the same.
The Power of Your Beliefs Make a Big Difference
What we believe about ourselves affects our lives in a big way. But, can positive affirmations really change these beliefs – and our lives?
“Your beliefs have a very tight hold over who you are, how you feel, and what you believe you deserve in life,” says Clinical Psychologist and Group Psychotherapist Dr. Sheila Forman, Ph.D.
“The purpose of positive affirmations is to reprogram your unconscious mind from a negative, life-defeating mind to a positive, life-affirming mind,” she says.
Dr. Forman not only uses positive affirmations to help her clients, but she also uses them to grow her own practice. “I use positive affirmations to help me build the practice I want. Since I am primarily a group psychotherapist, I create affirmations such as:
- “My groups are filled with my ideal clients.”
- “My clients succeed in group and I feel fulfilled.”
- “Clients seek my groups out.”
- “I have a steady source of referrals.”
Dr. Forman says affirmations help her imagine the success she wants and inspires her to take actions to achieve that success.
She says positive affirmations can help women entrepreneurs. “Crafting affirmations to reflect the entrepreneur’s goals can help her visualize what she wants to achieve,” says Dr. Forman. “Visualization is a key component to success.”
The most important aspect of a good affirmation is that it is believable.
If you write an affirmation that’s not believable, your mind will push back, says Dr. Forman. “For example, if you are a new entrepreneur and your average monthly income is $1,500, to state in an affirmation that ‘my average monthly income is $150,000 won’t work. Your mind will “argue” with you. Instead, affirm something more achievable, she says. For example, ‘I increase my monthly income by $500 each month.’ Your mind can wrap itself around that kind of thought and support you in your efforts.
So think big but be realistic, and you’ll see amazing results for your business – and your life.
How to Shift Your Mindset With Positive Affirmations
Daily positive affirmations can impact the level of success you achieve as an entrepreneur. By practicing them every day you can put an end to procrastination, self-doubt, and negative limiting beliefs – and become the successful business boss woman you want to be.
When I say positive affirmations, I don’t mean saying “I love myself” over and over again. I’m talking about positive affirmations rooted in your core values that speak to you.
Some examples of positive affirmations for female entrepreneurs based on values include:
- I spend more time with my family and loved ones
- I have a more flexible schedule so I can travel when I want
- I have wealth and abundance so I don’t live paycheck to paycheck
- I work with clients I share the same values with
- I am able to choose who I work with and the projects I work on
- I get paid what I’m worth and it makes me feel fantastic
- I am a woman of unlimited self-esteem and I’m proud of myself
I first came across affirmations in Sarah Turner’s Write Your Way to Freedom course. She encourages her students to build a strong business owner mindset. Students reflect on their values, goals, limiting beliefs about money and habits that can get in the way of their success such as procrastination.
Can you relate?
After recording responses on a worksheet, Sarah instructs students to rewrite negative, self-limiting beliefs. Then she has her students flip them creating positive affirmations rooted in specific value-based goals with positive emotion attached.
An example could be “I earn $5,000 a month from my copywriting business which allows me to spend more time taking family vacations when I want, and I feel like a winner!”
“Building a strong business owner mindset is the SINGLE most important thing you can work on to ensure your success,” says Sarah. “Having positive affirmations is a scientific approach to making real and effective change in your life. It’s made all the difference for me and many of my students.”
By practicing positive affirmations daily they become part of your life. You’ll begin to believe them, and they’ll become a part of who you are.
“Just as we do repetitive physical exercise to get stronger, affirmations can be thought of as exercise for our mind and brain,” says Integrative Mind and Body Specialist David Schechter, MD.
How to Boost Self-Confidence with Daily Positive Affirmations
One of the benefits of positive affirmations for female entrepreneurs is self-confidence. As entrepreneurs, we need confidence to succeed. We need self-confidence to:
- Communicate our value to others
- Speak to clients on discovery calls
- Give presentations
- Keep our momentum going
- Build a network of relationships
- Manage every aspect of our business
“Confidence is essential to the success of your business,” says Business Coach & Body Language Trainer Nancy Ganzekaufer.
“In my experience, engaging with others in a supportive, like-minded community is a beneficial, powerful path to take,” says Ganzekaufer. “Working alongside a dynamic group of entrepreneurs who share the same goals for achieving growth and profitability is energizing and empowering.”
The Takeaway on How Positive Affirmations Make You Feel Like A Winner
We can use positive affirmations for so many aspects of our business and our lives, including:
- Creating a rock-solid business owner mindset
- Boosting our self-confidence
- Helping us think more positively
- Stopping obstacles from holding us back
- Defeating procrastination
- Increasing our productivity
- Managing our time more wisely
- Making better business decisions (and life decisions)
- Winning client calls
- Kicking self-doubt in the butt
- Gaining the momentum we need to move forward and realize our dreams
- Changing our lives!
A proven science that works like a charm, daily positive affirmations for female entrepreneurs help you achieve success, strengthen your mindset – and live a happy life beyond your wildest dreams.
Create some positive affirmations and say them aloud every day to begin your mindset makeover. And if you’ve dreamt of making the shift from employee to entrepreneur – and making more moolah – check out this free course on becoming a well-paid freelance copywriter.
References
- Dr. Sheila H. Forman, PhD., Drsheilaforman.com, 2020
- Nancy Ganzekaufer, Nancyganzekaufer.com (2020)
- Catherine Moore, Psychologist, MBA, Positivepsychology.com, Daily Affirmations: Is there a science to it? (2020)
- Steven Rose, PhD/Steverosephd.com, Do positive affirmations work? (2020)
- David Schechter, Psychologytoday.com, Affirmations and Neuroplasticity (2020)
- John Martin, Choose your perspective: 7 tips for high performance through intentional thinking (2019)
- KeeshaJohnson,Mymissiontoescape.com,Positive-affirmations-for-entrepreneurs, (2019)
- Christian Jarett, Thecut.com, Brain Scans Can Help Explain Why Self-Affirmation Works, (2015)
- Geoffrey L. Cohen and David K. Sherman, Academic.oup.com//Self-affirmation activates brain systems associated with self-related processing and reward and is reinforced by future orientation, (2015)
Written by Bio: Stacy Sare Cohen is a female entrepreneur who helps interior designers and home goods brands craft engaging and strategic copywriting and content marketing. When she’s not writing blogs, websites, product pages, and newsletters–or practicing positive affirmations–she spends quality time with her family, friends, and favorite feline, Cinnamon. Connect with Stacy on her website or LinkedIn.
