Transport for London Shows How Positive Affirmations Should Not Be Written

Transport for London recently launched a new campaign to encourage more considerate behaviour from passengers. However, it may actually be having the reverse effect because whoever created the campaign obviously does not understand how to create effective affirmations.

The campaign involves animated characters wearing T-shirts with messages that include:

*I won't drop litter.
*I won't play loud music.
*I won't shout on my mobile.
*I won't eat smelly food.

The problem with these messages is that the human mind does not process negatives. For instance, whatever you do next, do not think of a green balloon. Despite your best intentions the image of a green balloon will enter your mind.

Therefore, the affirmations which are being promoted to Londoners are encouraging the exact opposite of what this campaign is aiming to address.

On a more positive note the campaign does include at least one positive affirmation:

*I will offer that person my seat.

In goal setting it is not sufficient to state what you don't want. In fact, this is a major reason why many people do not achieve their goals. They are so busy focusing on what they don't want and that is what thy end up manifesting in their lives.

Affirmations work in the same way. Affirmations should state what you do want rather than what you don't want. So you could amend the message "I won't drop litter" to:

"I will place my litter in a bin."

It may seem basic and even common sense but this is obviously not common knowledge otherwise Transport for London would not have made such a glaring error. The amended message clearly states the correct behaviour for dealing with litter and the message could be further reinforced with an image of someone actually placing litter in a bin.

As for eating smelling food this is a subjective matter. What might be smelly and offensive to one person may be acceptable to another. For instance, I can't stand the smell of any fast food. To me, it just doesn't smell the way good food should.

Personally, I would simply ban eating on public transport. In most of the countries I've travelled to eating and drinking is not allowed on public transport and the result is a much cleaner and healthier environment.

The issue of loudness is also subjective. People have different hearing ranges. For instance, a passenger was once incredulous that I could hear his music, even although he was using headphones, over what I was playing via my headphones.

The trouble is that all headphones are not created equal and some do allow sound to leak. Also, many people play music via headphones too loudly for too long and it has adversely affected their hearing. The consequence is that they are no longer aware that they are playing music louder than they should.

However, there is a problem on public transport with people who simply play music via their mobile phones without using headphones. So maybe a message regarding playing of music could be:

"I will use headphones when playing music."

Still, this post is not meant to be a rant against Transport for London or indeed the state of public transport here in London. I wanted to highlight the importance of phrasing affirmations correctly so that they do have a positive rather than negative effect.

I also wanted to highlight the fact that we are continually being fed messages by the media - billboards, posters, magazines, newspapers, TV, radio…and that many of them do not serve us. What's more worrying is that many people are simply not aware of the damaging effect these negative messages have on us.

Therefore, it is important to compensate for this by actively giving your mind a rich diet of positive messages and affirmations.

You can download a FREE 7-Part Affirmations Course by clicking the link below. It's a easy-to-follow, yet comprehensive guide that provides excellent instructions on how to create positive affirmations and effectively use them in your life to create positive changes in your life.

7 Part Affirmations Course

Individuals such as the motivational speaker, Anthony Robbins, and world-renowned golfer, Tiger Woods, use positive affirmations to help them achieve success. However, from this article you can see how easy it is to get the process of writing affirmations wrong. So learn from an expert and start putting to use this powerful tool today to achieve phenomenal success in your life.

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