If you read or watched The Secret, you may remember the premise that anything is possible and you can manifest almost anything in your life. But maybe you’re skeptical because you’ve tried affirmations and they never seemed to work in the past.

Affirmations are not the same as New Year’s Resolutions, which usually fail. I can tell you from experience that affirmations absolutely can work if they are done properly.

If you feel you are somehow missing the secret to The Secret when it comes to affirmations, here are some tweaks to consider.

1. Use present tense

Always use present tense when carefully crafting an affirmation. For instance, “I always have more than enough money for what I want or need in my bank accounts” rather than, “I want enough money in my bank account for what I need.”

There are four problems with the phrasing of the second affirmation example above. A) “I want” keeps you in a constant state of wanting rather than having. B) “Enough” limits you to having just enough instead of more than enough. C) “What I need” keeps you just meeting needs (i.e. to pay for an unexpected car repair) rather than manifesting what you actually want (to pay all of your bills and have extra money to buy things—fun things, not just necessities). D) Why limit yourself to one bank account?

2. Be exciting

The wording for your affirmations must personally excite you. Don’t think small and don’t be boring. Boring affirmations don’t work because they’re not actually want you want, they’re just what “think you might get but probably won’t because this won’t work anyway.” You’re right, it won’t work if it doesn’t excite you.

3. Be specific but unspecific

I can give you one specific example to never be specific about: Asking for a particular person that you already know to become your girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife. Even if you are tricking yourself by not asking for a specific person by name, go one step further: Don’t even have that one specific person in mind when you are writing your affirmation. In fact, I recommend that you do not specify height, weight, hair color, age or anything else.

When it comes to relationships, leave room for the Universe to deliver who might really make you happy. Take it from me.

Try something else instead, like, “I am so grateful that I wake up each morning of my life on earth still married to the most wonderful human being I’ve ever met, the one who loves me equally.”

4. Read affirmations out loud

Read your affirmations out loud in the morning when you get up, and at night before you go to sleep. Repeat after me: Morning and night—out loud. Read them with feeling, like you actually have all of them in your life right now.

Why do I say this, you might ask? Because repetition and hearing the words out loud with feeling might be the only ways you can reprogram your sabotaging subconscious monkey-mind from stopping you from getting what you want in your life like it has been doing so far.

5. Act the part

In addition to reading your affirmations out loud with feeling day and night, occasionally take a few moments to really act the part—that is, act as if you already had every single affirmation right now. Do this at least once per week, or more often.

Kind of like, “fake it until you make it,” except that that is a trite, hackneyed expression and what I am talking about is real acting, like Academy Award-winning acting carried out in detail in your mind’s eye. This is a lot more fun and exciting than simply going through the motions of “faking it” like a B-list actor who never gets called back to star in a good part. This is your life, not a dress rehearsal.

6. Give it time

Give the Universe time to manifest. But, start looking for little “coincidences” immediately.

The biggest secret to The Secret is: Your intention is actually the power behind your affirmations.

You might start manifesting in as little as a few days. Or your subconscious reprogramming might take a longer as you become more adept at it. See number 4 and number 5 above.

7. Back it up with some visuals

For some people, vision boards can help their subconscious “understand” the affirmations quicker than just hearing the words said out loud twice per day with feeling. Using pictures from magazines, images printed from the internet or your own drawings, create your affirmations in visual form on a board if this helps you. (Number 2 still applies here.)

8. Alter as needed

You may find that as you work with your affirmations through time that they are not quite right, not exciting enough or not what you really want. If that happens, rewrite them on the fly! Don’t get stuck or stay stuck; that’s not what affirmations are about.

Always remember: Affirmations are only a tool for manifesting what your intentions are for your life. Would you keep using a hammer if you needed a wrench? If they are not working, change them. It’s that simple.

Let me know if you have any questions or want to share your story with me!