“Life is a closet filled with pool toys.”—Amy Poehler
If you’ve read E-Squared, you might remember that I used affirmations to launch my freelance writing career. I even sent myself postcards with reminders that, “I, Pam Grout, am a great writer.” “I, Pam Grout, have what it takes to sell to New York editors.”
So I was thrilled to discover there’s another writer out there who also used affirmations to kick off his career. Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip Dilbert, credits writing 15 affirmations a day (“I, Scott Adams, will be a famous cartoonist”) for his meteoric rise.
Doing affirmations started as a lark. At the time, he was taking a hypnosis class. One of his classmates mentioned that by affirming what you want, you draw that very thing into your life. He didn’t buy it at first, but figured, “What can it hurt? It’s worth an experiment.”
He started by getting a date with a girl who was clearly (at least in his mind) way out of his league.
“At the time, I was a 6, maybe a 6.5. But she was a 9. The odds of her going out with me were long indeed,” he said.
But after several weeks of affirming just that, they ended up dating.
Still not convinced, he decided to ask for investment tips. He wanted to play the stock market.
Of course, it would have helped if he knew how to actually buy stocks. But nevertheless, he woke up one night and, with startling clarity, heard “Buy Chrysler.” He was a wet-behind-the ears kid at the time and had no idea how to actually make the purchase.
But as he followed Chrysler (this was during the Lee Iacocca days), he watched as it shot straight up, filling its investors’ pockets with mucho moolah.
Next (and this time he was ready) he got a hit to invest in something called ASK computers. Sure enough, it quickly increased by 10, then 20 percent. Smugly, he sold it, happily pocketing the proceeds only to hear that it soon doubled and then tripled in value.
Next, he put his 15 affirmations a day to work on the GMAT test. He got a score of 77 the first time which wasn’t high enough to get into UC Berkeley, his graduate school of choice.
He decided he needed a 94 if he had any hope of securing admission to his dream school.
“I knew I wasn’t really smart enough to get a 94, but I keep affirming and visualizing that number. I kept seeing a 94 peeking through that little window on the envelope,” he says.
He re-took the test, even though he knew 77 was probably all he was capable of.
Several weeks passed before the envelope arrived in his mail slot. He turned it over, looked in that little window and, you guessed it, his score was 94.
So by the time, he began affirming that, ‘I, Scott Adams, am a famous cartoonist,’ he was an old pro at affirmations. The universe had little choice but to reward him with the popular cartoon strip that, at last count, was syndicated in 2000 newspapers around the world.
As for me, I am presently affirming that all of you will have the very best Fourth of July of your life.
Pam Grout is the author of 18 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the about to be released, Thank and Grow Rich: a 30-day Experiment in Shameless
32 Responses
Happy 4th to you, Pam!!!
Great article Pam. We celebrate 1 July up here in Canada, eh:) Hope you enjoy your country’s birthday celebration. I wrote my affirmation, believe it is true and shared it with my mom. Cheers.
Great story Pam! I bought last week a notebook to write down three idea’s! I really looking forward to it! i also have been dancing and singing under the shower! I love it!
Greetings from the city of Nijmegen in Holland,
Lerrie Grooten
2016-07-01 20:21 GMT+02:00 Pam Grout :
> psgrout posted: ““Life is a closet filled with pool toys.”—Amy Poehler If > you’ve read E-Squared, you might remember that I used affirmations to > launch my freelance writing career. I even sent myself postcards with > reminders that, “I, Pam Grout, am a great writer.” “I, ” >
Pam, thanks so much for this post. I had given up on affirmations because many “thought leaders” say they do not work. I have hit a rough patch in my job search, so not only am I going to do affirmations again, I am going to re-read ESquared. Happy 4th to you too.
Hi Pam!
I love getting your blog emails with the wonderful stories of abundance and magic. This one was great as always, and funny to me as I am currently taking a hypnosis class and reading the book Success Is Not An Accident by the founder of the school. It’s all about how affirmations make you successful 🙂 Im grateful for the confirmations and alignment I continue to see.
Affirming that you have the best Forth of July of you life too Pam Grout!
💗 Cherry xo
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Thank you! Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2016 18:21:07 +0000To: gornnert@msn.comFrom: comment-reply@wordpress.comSubject: [New post] Dilbert, doing affirmations and discovering your passion
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psgrout posted: ““Life is a closet filled with pool toys.”—Amy Poehler
If you’ve read E-Squared, you might remember that I used affirmations to launch my freelance writing career. I even sent myself postcards with reminders that, “I, Pam Grout, am a great writer.” “I, “
Cool. I can do that!
>
thank you so much, I needed this reminder!
I´ll affirming you have the best July in your life, from México and my heart for you!
2016-07-01 13:20 GMT-05:00 Pam Grout :
> psgrout posted: ““Life is a closet filled with pool toys.”—Amy Poehler If > you’ve read E-Squared, you might remember that I used affirmations to > launch my freelance writing career. I even sent myself postcards with > reminders that, “I, Pam Grout, am a great writer.” “I, ” >
Oh, that was a great article Pam! You are making me a believer. I will have a very happy 4th of July. You will have one too.
This reminds me of what Glenda Green says Jesus told her in her book “Love Without End.” He said that man’s current understanding of energy was based on friction/force – including our understanding of magnetism.
But there is another kind of magnetism that the entire universe is actually built upon.
It attracts people and the elements of situations together in what he called “compression.” He said Love is the power and magnetism is the agency.
But when man comes to understand THIS kind of magnetism, there will be discovered new technologies of free energy in unlimited amounts.
But the principle itself isn’t new – it comes from your heart, and it builds your life.
Once again, Pam. So heartening. I have been heavily working some affirmations in my life over the last couple of weeks and found my willpower to do them flagging a bit. This gave me just the boost I need for an awesome 4th of July weekend (affirmations included!)
Bless you, and Happy IndepenDANCE Day!
Have an awesome Independence Day as I affirm my Independence!
Oh!! I LOVE this!!
Wow, perfect timing! The sheriff just came to my door w/ the foreclosure notice. Had been expecting it (haven’t worked in nearly 8 years, had to file bankruptcy), but the reality of it hit hard. Paced around a few minutes, fighting tears, then thought, “Check w/ Pam,” not really expecting a new post. Wrong! Not only did you have a new post today, but it was EXACTLY the one I needed to read! Thank you!
“I, Pat, have the money to keep this house! (Or buy a better one!)”
I know SOMETHING will happen. I’m going to save this post & re-read it every day (and re-read E-Squared & E-Cubed, as well).
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Good luck, Pat!
Thanks, Micki! I REALLY appreciate the support!
Question: The article states that the creator of Dilbert did affirmations but didn’t really think or believe they would work…but thought it couldn’t hurt. I read in quite a few books etc how the affirmation is good to say and think but it is really the ‘feeling’ behind it or the ‘belief’ in acquiring what you are affirming….so if Dilbert’s creator did affirmations but didn’t really think or believe they’d work, did he eventually believe they’d work so they did??? Thank you!
Good question, and something I wondered as well. From reading Adam’s original blog posts, it feels like he approached his affirmations from a light hearted/detached, “don’t care either way” perspective, which means that he likely had little to no resistance attached to the subject of the affirmations (i.e. he wasn’t trying to force anything to happen). In one of his books he talks about using the same affirmations method on something he REALLY wanted to happen (the healing of his voice) and how much of a struggle that was – I think it took years for it to manifest, though it did end up happening eventually..
Hi Pam Im a complete newbie, Two days ago I sent myself a post card, it didnt even get delivered to me as the mail sorter at my office thought I had put it in the ‘send’ mail tray by mistake and gave it back to me. I posted it again that night personally but that same day I check my paypal account and I had my first unsolicitated donation of $300 to my fund to pay for the new web site for my memorial fund for miners.
Excellent post and perfect reminder!
I am also saving this post.
Whoa! Not so fast…Happy Canada Day first (July 1) 🙂
Thanks for the great reminder on the power of affirmations…awaiting the new book with eagerness..
I will get a signed copy…
I will get a signed copy…
I will get a signed copy…
Happy Fourth of July!
Darren
Good morning Pam Grout,
And for me I am affirming that I love you and all of your readers, so just remember if things go wrong, don’t go with them !
God Bless you All !
Mike
Awesome post Pam!! LOVE to hear about others success. Makes it sound easily doable achievable and haveable. Looking so forward to reading your next book. Happy Fourth to you too!
Thank you so much, just what I needed, I didn’t realise how much negativity I was giving myself , I’ve now turned it around giving good affirmations and it’s working already , I’d been telling myself I’m going to be alone forever and ones interested in me, got your email yesterday, started saying the reverse and this morning got a text from a friend saying her handsome friend Simon had been asking about me…Thank you.
Thank you…perfect timing!
I loved that you shared this with us. I truly am grateful.
I cant even put it into words but I just feel like your blog always gives life hacks and re affirms the ones I already know.
another thing I would suggest people check out are the free affirmations and hypnosis tracks on youtube. Personally I like the ones by Paul Santisi as they really influenced my thinking. they take affirmations to a whole other level.
Great. Two days ago I am looking for Scott Adams and Affirmations by Google, but I didn’t found anything about his Affirmations. Now I am finding the ‘answer’ here! Thank you for the synchronization. 😉
Marie
Love the postcard idea~ am starting this week! Thank you Pam, for continually inspiring me. Happy 4th of July! Warm hugs, Shoshanna