What role do affirmations play in your personal development?

I think of myself as my own project. The work of my life is to reduce the gap between who I am and who I could have been. Affirmations are one of the most powerful tools I know for editing yourself. When I wanted to become comfortable with public speaking, I simply wrote repeatedly that I love public speaking about things that are interesting to me. A week of five-minute sessions and that became true. I now get genuine energy from being in front of an audience. Written affirmations lay grooves into the bedrock of your mind.