Its 150 years since the publication of what is now regarded as the first self help book – Samuel Smiles “Self Help“. Still on sale today – and apparently a big seller in countries such as Japan and China. 
But when first published it sold 20,000 copies in its first year, and by the time of Smiles death in 1902 had sold over 1/4 million copies. In the 19th Century it was only out sold by the Bible!
In a recent radio program it was said Smiles book was published on the same day as “On Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin. I cannot find any other proof of that fact. Either way, it could be that Smiles message “Heaven helps those who help themselves” was reassuring to a society held together by Christian beliefs.
But the underlying message from Smiles was that success came through dedication and hard work. He didn’t appear to believe in the concept of “genius”, all those he portrayed in his case studies got there by hard graft and application. Interestingly, this is a central theme of Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, Outliers.
The End of Self Help?
I write this as some have been predicting the end of self help, with a flurry of headlines such as Sorry Oprah: Self-help books seldom helpful
As in my last post, regarding self confidence being genetic, the reports are journalistic interpretations of some recently published research. The original article,”Positive Self-Statements: Power for Some, Peril for Others”, published in Psychological Science has the following abstract:-
Two experiments showed that among participants with low self-esteem, those who repeated a positive self-statement (“I’m a lovable person”) or who focused on how that statement was true felt worse than those who did not repeat the statement or who focused on how it was both true and not true.
… Repeating positive self-statements may benefit certain people, but backfire for the very people who “need” them the most.
The researchers argument being positive self statements, or affirmations, don’t work is because they are being used to get someone to believe something that they don’t believe. The research found that when used by people with high self esteem they did have a slight improvement in how they felt.
This is not the first time I have come across challenges to affirmations or positive thinking generally. It is overly simplistic to implore someone to “be postive”, as if just saying the words will bring about change.
In my main post on affirmations to date, Build Self Esteem with Affirmations, I reflect on my own use of affirmations, but also on some other negative effects. Apart from the nonsense of the Law of Attraction, I wrote:-
Another argument against affirmations is they don’t engage your brain in problem solving, nor tap into our creativity and imagination. In other words they encourage a passive use of the brains massive power.
Affirmations can encourage bad thinking habits, by encouraging to much focus on the self. I went over these in three posts earlier this year. For example an affirmation could be
“I always communicate in a clear and assertive manner”
Even if you are a good communicator, you are unlikely to always be clear and assertive. So such an affirmation is likely to lead to frustration and negative self talk when you fail to live up to this.
Write affirmations you can believe
Personally, in the above example, I would use “I am a good communicator”, as an affirmation. My negative automatic thoughts can readily recall and deliver memories of where I have messed up – fluffing my line in a school play 39 years ago being one of them! I will forever remember 15th March as “the Ides of March” as my one line (as soothsayer in Julius Caesar) was
“Beware the Ides of March” – I could never remember “Ides”…..
There have been many other mess ups since – but I choose to remind myself of the positives. Linked to the affirmation, I would list times I have done very well as a communicator.
Going back to the research, even though I now have what I think is healthy self esteem, I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying “I’m a loveable person” (which was used for the experiment). My affirmations are more reminders of what is good about my life:- “I have a wonderful family”
I see affirmations as a useful tool to help reinforce positive thinking.
But they don’t work as a stand alone method to change how you feel about yourself. You need to learn to challenge your negative thoughts, not assuming that every thought you have is a fact.
If your negative thoughts are being fed by underlying negative beliefs about yourself, then again take them apart and start questioning and challenging them. Once you tease out a new belief that you have backed up with evidence, then its time to start using affirmations to reinforce and establish that belief.
Affirmations can be a useful tool – but they are not a magic wand that can miraculously transform your life with no other effort.
Top two photos by manunderstress, nayrb7 on Flickr
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David,
This is an outstanding article. I agree with you in your pragmatic approach to affirmations. They are, indeed, a wonderful tool, but only one among many. The hard part is discussing their value is that it really depends on who you are talking to and where they are in their journey.
The truth about affirmations lies somewhere between the “magic” supposed by “The Secret” and the ridicule the mentioned research has renewed in the mainstream media. I have been in contact with the lead researcher and she is surprised at the sweeping proclamations made by some based on her team’s research.
In my own journey, affirmations have been invaluable to my recovery from serious depression, growth, and success. It’s the reason I do what I do because I’m very interested in seeing these tools properly applied and used to their full potential.
Thank you for what you are doing to contribute to the dialogue.
Stay inspired!
Ray Davis,
Founder, The Affirmation Spot
Ray Davis´s last blog ..Ocean Affirmation – The Affirmation Spot for Monday July 13, 2009
Ray, thanks for your kind words and very interesting comment. I can only “reaffirm” what you have said, and hope others add their opinions as affirmations are widely referred to within self help, but seldom discussed critically.
Nice post, David.
I read research (and if I can find the link/reference, I’ll post it), that positive self talk can increase performance by up to %37.
According to this research, Negative self talk can drop it by the same amount.
This research, though, was looking at competitions and similar situations where the affirmations (positive self talk) was being used to ‘pump up’ just prior to competing/executing the skill.
It wasn’t being used to change beliefs (long term perceptions of self and the world).
I think affirmations could be of benefit even in changing beliefs… but they have to be much more skillfully used…
I would liken the use of affirmations to treading water. Bodies float. Normally there is no need to tread water in order to remain floating… if you add enough lead weights to the body… it must now tread water vigorously to remain afloat… which can be maintained for a while (just like the apparent skill increase after using affirmations), but eventually the body tires and the weights drag you back down.
If we want to change our limiting beliefs… we have to ‘cut loose our weights’… treading water isn’t a long term solution!
keep smiling,
Ben
Find yourself with a smile…´s last blog ..Site Review: AnmolMehta.com
Hi Dave,
I have read the same research. Although the research was conducted in a wrong way, with a sweeping statement that makes me slap my head “Duh”.. but it does highlighted one very important part.
Positive affirmation must be read and repeated with the correct emotions attached. While reading our affirmation, our state of mind, be it happy, bored, amazed or total disbelief will affect how our sub-conscious mind interpret the message we read! And this emotion attachment is missing from many people who are practicing this positive affirmation.
I guess this is the reason why thousands of people fail to achieve the desirable results from their positive affirmations. Even if they force themselves to believe in what they read, their emotion and state of mind will over-rule and interpret the affirmation as something negative to their sub-conscious mind.
Even a most undesirable person will have moments when they are lovable.. therefore, when they have written down the affirmation “I am a lovable person”, first they need to search their memory for moments that they feel lovable, remembering the feelings and the emotions at that point in time. Then every time they read their affirmation, recall the feelings and emotions, and truly believe in what they read. For those who totally cannot think of anything good, they can imagine and visualize themselves of being lovable. Something like daydreaming.. and remember that feels good feeling! And every time they read the affirmation, starts daydreaming!
Cheers!
Albert Lee
Albert´s last blog ..Jim Rohn Tribute and Health Update
I think these criticisms are valid–but that they don’t support an all out offensive against the use of affirmations.
What they show me is that it’s important to construct and to use affirmations in the right way, with reasonable expectations.
The problems seem to stem from poorly-conceived and structured affirmations, not to the idea of self-help in more general terms.
Lisa Wallace´s last blog ..Feed the Grateful Coyote
Thank you all for your very informative comments
Ben – I think this reinforces the notion that affirmations are a useful tool, but not something that by themselves will facilitate major changes.
Albert – I’ve literally just been reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point that looks at research into how the emotions of others can influence us, whatever the message being conveyed. So I would agree that the emotion conveyed when receiving an affirmation from ourselves is crucial.
Lisa – The word “expectation” is crucial. As I argued, affirmations can help reinforce and “affirm” rather than create something out of nothing.
Still, thoughts form words and words become your reality. Many still believe in this.
I sometimes think scientists need to have some reason to get more research money, and controversy sells. I tend to believe that affirmations do work, at least as far as keeping people moving forward and staying positive. And, if one really believes it, they will find a way to success. Now, it might not be the success they were shooting for, but any success is a step in the right direction.
Mitch´s last blog ..Is Common Courtesy Dead?