In other words, the intelligence behind the universe -- the universal mind -- had an idea and literally spoke it into being. I wasn’t there -- at least not as this collection of molecules -- but whatever the first moment of creation was, even if it didn’t make a “big bang”, it must have made some sound that announced its existence. If we are, in fact, created in the image of this God who calls itself I AM, then obviously, our word is meant to be as creative also.

In simpler economic times, “giving your word” was as good as signing a written contract. One’s word was one’s “bond” and carried with it an expectation of and trust in fulfillment. “Keeping your word” and “being as good as your word” were taken very seriously. Our words are no less creative today. Look at all the technology we have imagined, talked about making, and made.

Fast forwarding to 1999, what all this means to me is that every word that comes out of our mouths affirms our reality, not only as we describe it, but as we create it. (The fundamental meaning of the word “af-firm” is to affect firmness, to make real.) Whether or not that reality is to our liking is another matter entirely.

If our experience of reality is different from how we want it to be, then how do our conversations with ourselves and each other need to change, in order for the circumstances we desire to manifest in our lives? I have become fond of asking my clients to listen carefully to what comes out of their mouths, and to notice where it places them -- in space, time, form, and feeling. Is the statement they have just uttered, or are about to utter, affirming a reality they prefer, or does it reinforce past undesirable experience? Everyone who takes this exercise seriously has astounding insights about their capacities to manifest what they want. And much of our session time these days is spent dismantling tenacious obstacles to achieving goals, by looking at how past problematic experience is recreated and perpetuated, quite literally, by speaking it again (re-affirming it) in the “present tense.”

Someone says, “I just can’t understand what’s in my way?” From an outside perspective, this is clearly a misconception. Everyone is capable of stepping outside a situation and analyzing its operative components -- troubleshooting, so to speak. Each of you does this every day about something. Yet in making this assertion, you remove that possibility from your experience in this moment, the only moment the physical body ever occupies. The mind’s autopilot faithfully mobilizes your system to carry out your instructions (to in-struct literally means to put into structure -- like affirm, to make real), just as it keeps your heart pumping automatically without the need for you to consciously monitor it.

I am particularly intrigued by how language places us in time (bless my English degree!), bringing past experience forward to the present moment, and keeping success at bay by continuing to project it onto the future. When someone says to me “I always do that”-- referring to some undesirable habit they are working to change -- what actually occurs is that person’s consciousness re-creating the experience in thought and in words, once again instructing the body how to move into action and future experience in a particular way.

Someone else says to me “I can never...” or “This is going to be tough/take a long time,” and I know that they’re right, because they defined their experience when they spoke it. And as long as they continue to speak that, it will continue to be so.

I personally love the “past perfect” tense as a practical tool for interrupting the habit of recreating the past. To simply move a statement like “I always do that” (present tense) slightly into the past as “I usually have done that,” (past perfect) gives the self just enough room to find a different choice in this moment and the option to make it. The extra room comes from the removal of self-judgment surrounding the habit (the emotional charge on the word “always”) -- so the truth can still be acknowledged, while permission is granted to entertain a different tactic.

On the future side of the equation, I often hear things like “I’m planning to,” “I’m preparing to,” and “I want to.” (In the first six years of my career my mentor at the time, a colorful Texan, was fond of joking about how he was “fixin’ to get ready to start.”) This kind of talk keeps manifestation perpetually and quite successfully out of reach in a future time. Of course plans, preparations and desires all have their value and place in the stages of fulfillment. But at some point, taking actions that pay off in results must begin. How can you express and encourage that action closer to present time?

Using the “past perfect” time shift (as in, “I’ve been planning to...”) can bring the future closer, as well as discourage recreation of the past. It sets preparation slightly behind us, thereby opening the possibility that planning is over, and action can happen. Also, the very thing that keeps the past in our way -- using the present tense of “do” and other action verbs can be enlisted to hasten experience that’s still a way off -- as in, “I do at least one thing every day that creates my goal into being.”

Now, I have been told fairly often that “affirmations don’t work for me.” The skeptic usually will cite an experience of having used “An Affirmation” occasionally for a week or two or four. But when it comes to changing habits of a lifetime, there is no quick fix.

Whatever your sabbateur self-talk, you’ve been affirming it for years without really listening. When you start listening you will be surprised at how much self-criticism and defeatism you actually hear inside your head. These grooves are very deep, and it takes committed time to lay down equally stable new track for your mind to run on. In addition, the mind is so dedicated to its familiar patterns, the more layers you peel off, the harder it’s likely to fight to keep obsolete beliefs in place. Thoughts like “affirmations don’t work for me” are part of the automatically critical mind’s strategy for maintaining the status quo. But the longer you practice affirming a positive, creative thought, the more consistently your whole self experiences pleasurable outcomes, and the more willing your mind becomes to let go of outmoded patterns and support the new party line.

I am reminded of something I’ve heard quite often since the advent of personal computer technology:

In the most significant respects our brains are highly sophisticated computers that carry out our mind’s instructions to the letter, even when those instructions thwart fulfillment of our programming’s real intentions. If you want to change your output, you’ve got to change your input. So I challenge you to really listen to what you say, and revise your operating system. If the key to changing our experience to be more what we want lies in the simple turn of a phrase -- why make it more complicated? Life is challenging enough as it is.