This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Unfu*k Yourself" by Gary John Bishop. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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Looking for some positive affirmations to keep going? Which affirmations should you use when you feel like quitting on your goals?
According to Gary John Bishop’s book Unfu*k Yourself, you can achieve great things if you develop the resilience to stick with your goals when you feel like quitting. In his book, he provides positive affirmations to keep going and embrace uncertainty as you pursue your dreams.
Read on to discover Bishop’s affirmations to help you reshape your thoughts and keep going towards your goals.
Affirmations to Keep Going Towards Your Goals
In the self-help book Unfu*k Yourself, author Gary John Bishop describes two affirmations to keep going towards your goals, even when you feel like giving up. He describes how these affirmations will help you to cultivate attitudes in yourself that lead to happiness and success. For each affirmation, the solution is the same in each situation: do it anyway, and don’t give up.
In this article, we’ll describe each affirmation from Bishop’s book, how it helps you to keep going, and how Bishop advises you should apply it in your life.
Just Keep Going
Affirmation: “I am relentless.”
Best used: When you feel like giving up
If you cultivate the ability to keep going, regardless of the odds or the obstacles you face, you can achieve great things. Bishop says that progress is not always obvious while it’s happening, but if you refuse to give up, you’ll reach the finish line eventually. Bishop offers this affirmation as a tool to keep you going even when you lose motivation, or when other people doubt or discourage you. Every time a problem gets in your way, he advises, direct all your energy to solving it, and don’t stop until you do.
| Can You Become Relentless? The capacity to keep going no matter what, which Bishop calls relentlessness, is widely recognized as an important component of success. For instance, in Grit, Angela Duckworth defines grit as the intersection of persistence and passion; in other words, having a goal you care deeply about and pursuing it consistently over time. Just as Bishop argues that you can train yourself to become relentless, Duckworth maintains that grit isn’t something you’re born with, but a quality you develop through experience. That claim is debated, and studies show conflicting results. The answer matters because this quality is so crucial to achievement—if you can build it in yourself or instill it in your children, it would mean anyone could develop this key skill for success |
You Don’t Need to Be Sure
Affirmation: “I embrace the uncertainty.”
Best used: When you’re tempted to stick with what you know
Bishop maintains that any growth or achievement requires you to go beyond your comfort zone and accept some amount of risk. This is an important affirmation to help you keep going when you are pursuing your dreams because you need to be able to push on despite uncertainty. Doing so is uncomfortable, because your natural tendency is to stay where you’re safe, but Bishop advises working against this tendency. He says the ability to tolerate uncertainty is a quality many highly successful people have in common.
Build up your threshold for uncertainty by starting with small, low-stakes risks that take you out of your daily routines. From there, you can slowly ramp up to making bigger moves that go against your habits or even your sense of who you are, if those behaviors or attitudes conflict with your goals. Keep in mind, however, this affirmation calls for you to embrace uncertainty and keep going, not just grudgingly tolerate it—that implies he wants you to embark on these experiments in unpredictability with an attitude of celebration for the surprises to come rather than dread.
(Shortform note: One scientifically proven way to increase your tolerance for uncertainty is mindfulness meditation. One possible reason, which Dan Harris describes in 10% Happier, is that meditation requires you to focus on the present moment, presumably pulling your attention away from worrying about some uncertain future. As you sit in meditation, you naturally feel urges to talk, move around, check your messages, adjust the temperature, and so on. You notice them and let them go. Thoughts and feelings come up, but you don’t let them take over. By learning to observe these impulses but not focus on them or act on them, you are training yourself to keep pursuing your purpose despite feeling uncomfortable.)
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Here's what you'll find in our full Unfu*k Yourself summary:
- How your mind works and how you can use its power to your advantage
- Why your subconscious mind is actually the one calling the shots
- The seven phrases you can use to reshape your thoughts
