I've been doing some thinking about what makes Power Affirmations so remarkable and effective. There's a word that succinctly describes one of the main benefits: "takeaway."

What is a takeaway? A takeaway is a key point of profound value that a presenter or author is attempting to communicate to the readers or listeners. It's a point that they want you to use to improve your life.

In traditional presentations or writings, the key points are mixed in with a lot of other material that is likely not that important (other than to frame the takeaways). You often have to sift through a lot of material to get to the gems. Not only does that take a lot of time, sometimes it's easy to miss the important points completely. Or the points go by so quickly that you don't really have the time to transform them into usable thought habits. But it's generally the takeaways that's the real value in the material.

This is where the Power Affirmation technique can make the difference between missing the point or getting full value from the material. Here are just some of the reasons:

• The emphasis is on how you are going to personally apply the takeaways.
• The mindset needed for writing Power Affirmations is that you are actively looking for the takeaway points that mean the most to your current situation. What you focus on you will find.
• When you create your Power Affirmations, you have to think through the points in order to clearly articulate the affirmations. That extra effort helps increase your understanding.
• Power Affirmations are personalized. This means that you take the material and transform it into a personal positive declaration of faith. Just by doing this, you are emphasizing your commitment to yourself that you are going to follow through with action. And make no mistake about it: only thought inspired action towards specific goals bring consistent positive results. Affirmations without action will not work.
• By transforming and organizing the takeaways into Power Affirmations, you can review and affirm them repeatedly until they become part of your every day thought habits. These habits guide your actions and are more likely to lead to positive results.

The great thing about the free e-book about Power Affirmations that you can download from my website is that you get both a lot of positive affirmations that you can begin to use immediately, and a clear explanation of how you can create your own Power Affirmations from any material you are studying.

This is exactly what I did when I created the Power Affirmations included in my e-book. I identified the areas where I wanted to improve and then reviewed some of the material that I have found most useful over the years. As I reviewed the material, I identified the takeaways (some of them "hidden" takeaways) that I wanted to act on and transformed those points into concise statements of affirmations.

The Power Affirmations formula can be used with virtually any material you choose to study. Don't limit the use to only self-help or motivational material.

For example, I'm currently studying several books on marketing by Seth Godin. Guess what my primary method of really learning the material is? Yup, Power Affirmations.

As a result, I'm learning (and applying) a lot more of the information than if I simply read and highlighted the book. Or made a few notes. And every time I review these Power Affirmations, the positive thought habits become stronger, I receive a deeper insight, and I apply what I'm learning to my business.

So from now on, when you study new material, identify the key takeaways and transform them into Power Affirmations. Then review them regularly so that they become part of your thought habits. And apply the information with action to dramatically improve your life.

If you want more information on how to create and use Power Affirmations, you can visit my website and download the free e-book.

Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life!

Copyright (c) 2005 Bill Marshall - All rights reserved. Feel free to republish this article with copyright and link information included.

For practical self-improvement tips, visit http://www.poweraffirmations.com Get my new free e-book, "Power Affirmations: Power Positive Conditioning for Your Subconscious Mind"