The rest of the story…
You have probably heard this quote. But, do you know the origins?
Emile Coué was a French psychologist and pharmacist who found his patients made spectacular progress by reciting this mantra several times a day.
Coué was booked to do a speaking tour in the USA in the early 20th century. Unfortunately, after an early speaking engagement a reporter ridiculed this mantra in his newspaper column.
The result was like something from a Saturday Night Live skit where the mocking version becomes more well known than the original (remember Sarah Palin?).
The press became so bad Coué cancelled the remainder of the tour and went back to practice in Europe.
As recently as the early 1990s SNL had a self-help guru character, Stuart Smalley, who came up with all sorts of cheesy affirmations which we happily laughed at.
Fortunately, affirmations have since come back into favor and people are realizing how effective they can be at reprograming the subconscious.
To quote Paul Harvey: “And now you know the rest of the story”.
(bonus points if you read that in his voice)
What are your favorite affirmations?