In a sort of... close conclusion.

As I stated in "The Most Important Misunderstanding" post, there is no way that self affirmation is ALL you need to succeed. 

However, we can see the original myth being portrayed as Self Affirmation being so entirely helpful! As I showed through the various posts on this blog, it does not help as much as it is emphasized to. "The Little Engine That Could" was one of the things that misled people into emphasizing so much onto a phrase that had no truth to it. 

Upon a reflection on the TV shows such as the Rugrats, the direct TV episode that applies to my blog is an episode of Hey Arnold! How many of you remember that show? Well, if you don't, there was an episode where Arnold joins the basketball team and meets a great player on the team who, to be honest, is the only the coach wants the ball given to. This great basketball player has one flaw though. He can't shoot free throws. Arnold, being a great free throw shooter, stays after practice one day to practice his free throw shooting. As this great basketball player watches Arnold, and sees the ball swishing through the net, he asks Arnold to tutor him in shooting free throws. 

Arnold takes him to a basketball court, and first goes through a series of exercises that help him first feel confident in himself. This is where the myth bears a kernel of truth. Self affirmation was encouraged here from the very start of the activity that he was doing. This great basketball player who learning to shoot free throws had to learn to believe in himself, and as long as he believed he could, his body followed through with what he was focused to do. 

I'm not saying that self affirmation is completely necessary to function, but for important things you should believe in yourself. I didn't mean for this to be a "Debbie Downer" blog, but I thought I could take a myth that I knew that was false and somehow apply to everything else that we found ourselves facing in life. Believing in yourself is important, and you should definitely prepare for what you are doing. Self affirmation is not ALL you need and nor does it give you a ridiculously crazy boost on performance skill. It does help you if you believe in yourself though, and if you have no belief in yourself... Well, you should start. Imagine someone with literally no confidence or self positivity at all. That person is probably not you.