Chances are you’ve heard about affirmations and how they help you perform better, but did you know that positive self-talk statements like “I can do this!” are not as effective as we’ve all been told?

Sure, they are way better than negative self talk (“I’ll never be able to do this!”), but studies show that when you turn your positive statement into a question, it becomes 50% more effective than the original positive affirmation.

Question Your Way to Success!

It’s totally counter-intuitive (like a lot of Soul-Centered Business principles), but asking yourself “Can I do this?” leads to better results than it’s rah-rah cousin “I can do this!” This is because a question allows for a greater emotional shift than a statement and uses a part of the brain that more actively facilitates positive change. Also, a question spurs answers–and thus strategies–for successfully completing the task, reaching the goal or resolving the issue.

How to Use Questions to Train Your Brain!

1) Respond to your question with five or more reasons why you can do what you are asking about (or however it correlates with your question.) This trains your brain to expect a positive outcome, which makes that outcome more likely. It also gets you focused on solutions rather than challenges.

2) Change the question to the past tense and from the state of having already overcome the challenge, i.e. “How did I do this?” Your subconscious has no sense of time, nor does it know the difference between imagination and reality. When you ask a question about how you did something and imagine that you have successfully completed it, your brain jumps in with answers that contain the solutions you are looking for. Also, because in your mind you have already done the task or overcome the challenge, it becomes easier to do it—since doing something a second time is always easier than the first.

3) Introduce ease by asking yourself “How did it get to be so easy to…?” and that gets your brain looking for the easiest path to move you to where it thinks yo already are. 

How Mind Games Train Your Brain!

The brain is magically maleable.

Your unconscious brain does not know the difference between “reality” and imagination, or between the past, present or future.

Whatever you are experiencing now, is happening now, whether it is the fight you had with your brother when you were five or the imagination-based mind games you play with yourself to experience something you desire as if you had it right now.

When you imagine enough and ask reality-bending questions to tweak you mental view of what you are experiencing, the mind games you play with yourself train your brain to support the future experience that you desire. 

Try it and share the results below!