Every morning, in his shower, Gary Michels kicks off his day by reading out loud from a laminated list of positive affirmations tacked to his wall. He reads them all again several more times throughout his day, from his car, at his office – wherever he is.

“If you write down your goals for the year, you’re seven times more likely to succeed if you review them every day,” Michels told an audience during his class, “Turn It Up a Notch: Get in the Millionaire Mindset,” during Education Day at ASI Chicago.

Michels, a motivational speaker, author, radio host and sales trainer from Southwestern Consulting, pounded home several simple but effective messages throughout his 50-minute session, assuring the group that if they followed his advice, they could improve their lives – and their sales.

“I’m going to start with a bold statement: 60-80% of what we say to ourselves is negative or survival mode,” he said. “What if you replace the negative self-talk with positive affirmations? It’s a very simple concept that’s helped save marriages, turn around depression and even helped people lose weight. It helps people who are average in sales become good – and people who are good become great.”

The best part? Self-talk is free. “This is really life-changing, guys,” he said. “I mean it. Cross off the negative and write in the positive. There’s science behind this – it’s not hocus pocus.” Examples of affirmations sales people could apply included, “Every no gets me closer to a yes,” “I’m getting more organized every day” and “I finish strong because I work the numbers.”

Michels challenged his audience to follow his suggestions, stop rationalizing failures, and exercise some discipline for about 21 days – the time it takes to change a habit. “Anything takes work,” he said. “It takes 10,000 hours to become expert at anything.”