You might have heard about a thing called affirmations. If you haven’t, they are phrases that you repeat to yourself to change subconscious beliefs.
For example, let’s say you believe you can’t lead a large organization. If you wanted to dispel that notion, you could use affirmations to help do so, according to the theory.
How affirmations “work”
If you repeated a phrase like “I am a competent, confident, articulate leader” 100’s of times a day eventually that notion will sync in and replace your limiting beliefs about leadership. The key to affirmations is repetitions. You wouldn’t have gotten a limiting belief overnight so displacing it would take effort.
Elephant in the room
Affirmations are a tool of the New Age spirituality movement. Depending on what you already believe this can either repel or attract you to them. I don’t care where ideas come from, especially if they are good ones. If there’s a chance you can reprogram the voice(s) in your head to motivate and encourage you, why not try?
The (other) problem with affirmations
In most cases, it’s unusual to repeat something to yourself over and over again. Each time I’ve attempted to pick up this practice, I’d drop it because I’d feel strange doing it. I’m writing about affirmations now because I think I have a solution that gets over its strangeness.
Music
Do you know when repeating something over and over again doesn’t feel strange? When the thing you’re repeating is music. Music is meant to be repeated, played, and listened to endlessly. What if affirmations were put to music? Could there be such a thing as an affirmation song?
Affirmation “songs”
If you search for affirmation songs on Spotify you’ll find a multitude of “spoken word” set to background music. I haven’t tested Apple Music but I suspect it’s the same. Those affirmations set to music are a start, but not quite what I envision. There are three problems with affirmation song out there today:
- The vocals are not melodic. It’s easier to remember phrases that follow a set rhythm or pattern. The affirmation tracks I’ve heard are more like speeches.
- The tracks aren’t focused. Each track cycles through many different affirmations, instead of focusing on one. This makes it difficult to replay the affirmation that you want to hone in on. You’d have to keep rewinding or scrubbing to hear the part you want to listen to.
- They don’t resonate. The affirmations I’ve found don’t hit the mark of the beliefs I want to instill. Many of them are old, created ages ago, and don’t speak in a modern vernacular.
Affirmation Hip-hop
I’m creating affirmation songs, which I’m calling affirmation hip-hop, that solve all the problems I’ve listed above. They are melodic, each song is focused on one affirmation, and it’s current with the times.
The first one I’ve released is called Confident Leader. It is meant to cement the belief in you that you are a competent, confident, and articulate leader.
Give it a try
If you feel like your leadership beliefs could be strengthened, try listening to Confident Leader each day for 5 minutes for the next 30 days. When you’re done report back your results. I’d love to hear about any progress you make.
Apple Music | Amazon Music | Google Play
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I’m working on a few more affirmation hip-hop tracks. If you’re interested in being notified when the next one is released, let me know by signing up to my mailing list.