Apart from incorrectly constructing positive affirmations there is another reason why practicing daily positive affirmations don't work or don't seem as if they're working.

Let's look at the latter case first. Business Optimization Strategist, Stephen Pierce said:

"Just because it ain't working doesn't mean it doesn't work."

Let me give you an example. Imagine going to a restaurant with your family and enjoying a sumptuous meal. In fact, you enjoyed the meal so much you get the recipe and plan to recreate the recipe for your family. You and your family are so excited your mouths water in anticipation.

But when you finish preparing the dish you're actually very disappointed and, though they try to hide it, the disappointment shows on your family's faces as well. Someone your version of this dish doesn't quite look like what you had at the restaurant and it doesn't taste nearly as good. Yet you followed the recipe step-by-step. What could have gone wrong?

Well, several things. It could be that the restaurant chef uses a secret ingredient that isn't revealed in the recipe. It could be that the chef has their own unique way of combining and cooking the ingredients. Whatever, it is they do something, and it may be quite subtle, that has a profound effect on the outcome of this particular recipe.

So, if you are confident that your affirmations have been properly constructed from a neural-linguistic point of view, there may be something else that you're omitting in your practice of daily positive affirmations.

For instance, when you say your affirmations, do you visualize what that affirmation really means? For instance, take the affirmation:

"I am financially independent."

What does that mean to you? If you were financially independent what kind of lifestyle would you be enjoying? Who would you be sharing your time with? Where would you be living? How would you spend your leisure time? What type of home would you be living in?

Well, do you ask yourself those types of questions and imagine what it would be like to be financially independent? Or, do you simply say the words to yourself with little or no emotion?

Here's the thing. Unless you put your heart and soul into your affirmations they will not work. You have to get emotionally involved.

Your affirmations often represent something that you haven't yet acquired. Think of a series of vertical shelves. What you currently have in your life is within easy reach for you. What you're seeking is on a higher shelf. So you're either going to have to stretch yourself or stand on something which will elevate you in order to reach what you're aiming for.

Now let's look at the issue that your positive affirmations just don't seem to be working. All too often we give up on something just before we reach the point of breakthrough. And yet, some our darkest moments obscure some of our most glorious opportunities and eventual achievements - if we just have the courage to hold on until dawn break.

Nelson Mandela had a dream to see the end of apartheid in South Africa but, when he was imprisoned, for a long time he thought his dream was over. But then one day he experienced a shift in his perception and he thought to himself that maybe this was how things appeared as his dream was unfolding.

With this new insight he began seeing things differently and one day his voice of intuition said he should start writing letters about his experiences and the rest, as they say, is history.

Practicing daily positive affirmations does work and can work for you. But only if you believe they work and only if you put the effort in to make them work.