Self-Affirmation List: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Self-Affirmation List, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Practices that may help

1. Map your value hierarchy
   Rank what you most value so you can draw on the strongest affirmation when you need it.
   Self-Affirmation Theory, Made Practical
2. Affirmations
   Repeat chosen statements about who you are and what you’re committed to.
   The Miracle Morning, Made Practical
3. Write about a value that matters to you
   Before a stressful or threatening situation, spend five minutes writing about a value that is genuinely important to you.
   Self-Affirmation Theory, Made Practical
4. Use affirmation of values, not affirmation of ability
   Affirm that you are a good person with important values — not that you are good at the specific thing you are anxious about.
   Self-Affirmation Theory, Made Practical
5. The practice of self-assertiveness
   Honor your wants, needs, and values by expressing them in the world — appropriately and openly.
   The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Made Practical
6. Use value-based self-affirmation before threatening evaluations
   Before a threatening evaluation, write for 10 minutes about a value that matters to you — unrelated to the domain being evaluated.
   Power Posing Revisited
7. Affirm genuine strengths and effort
   Notice and name real strengths the person brings — not empty praise.
   Motivational Interviewing, Made Practical
8. Distinguish genuine deferral from disguised refusal
   An item that has been on the someday list for two or more years is not deferred — it has been declined without being acknowledged.
   The Someday List
9. Self-Affirmation Theory, Made Practical
   Claude Steele’s self-affirmation theory holds that people protect their sense of moral adequacy by reflecting on values that are genuinely important to them — and that doing so reduces defensive reactions to threats. The evidence for reducing defensiveness and improving openness to threatening information is solid; claims that brief affirmations broadly raise achievement are more contested.
10. Balance the review with a genuine positive inventory
    List three specific things you did well today — not three things that went well, but three things you did.
    The Pythagorean Evening Review

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• When I’m rattled and need to ground myself in what actually matters to me, I freeze→
• I’ve tried saying the big confident lines in the mirror and they just ring hollow→
• I’ve got a big evaluation looming and I can already feel myself bracing to defend my whole worth on it→
• I keep telling myself "I’m great at this, I’ve got this" right before the thing I’m scared of, and it somehow makes me feel worse→
• I keep swallowing what I actually want and going along to keep the peace, and every time I stay silent against my own wishes it quietly tells me my needs don’t matter→

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.