Create a New Truth
Overwrite a limiting self-belief by repeating a chosen future truth 25 times a day.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 90%
Orman's method treats a limiting self-belief as an installed truth that can be deliberately overwritten with a chosen one. The input is an honest naming of the fear; the process is a single present-tense sentence that describes who you must be, deliberately stated as already true even when it is factually false today, and delivered through three channels at high frequency — silent repetition in a mirror, shouted repetition out loud, and handwritten repetition — 25 times each, every day, for months. The 'at least' qualifier is load-bearing: it removes the ceiling so the outcome is not capped by the number you happened to pick. The output is behavioural: you begin operating as the person in the sentence, and performance follows. Orman ran this at 30 while terrified in her first brokerage job and was producing far beyond her stated number within six months.
Origin
Orman invented this in 1980 on her first day as a Merrill Lynch broker, aged 30, knowing nothing about money, convinced she did not belong — a woman in an office of 105 male brokers, hired only because affirmative action forced it and told outright she would be fired in six months.
Core principles
- 01The truth you currently hold about yourself was assigned to you, not chosen by you.
- 02A new truth is stated as already-true, not as a wish or a goal.
- 03Repetition across multiple channels (spoken, written, mirrored) is what installs it.
- 04Cap-free wording ('at least') stops you from limiting the outcome.
- 05Behaviour follows belief; you act like the person you keep telling yourself you are.
How to run it
- 1
Name your greatest fear honestly
State plainly what you believe about yourself that is stopping you. Orman's list was specific: she was a woman, she was a lesbian, and she knew absolutely nothing about money.
Pro tip Write the fear down before writing the truth — vague fear produces a vague affirmation.
Watch out Do not soften the fear to make it comfortable; a sanitised fear generates a weak counter-truth.
- 2
Write one present-tense sentence describing who you must become
Compose a single sentence that describes the person capable of getting past that fear, phrased as if it is already true. Orman's was: 'I am young, powerful and successful, producing at least ten thousand dollars a month.'
Pro tip Use plain everyday language, not jargon — it has to be a sentence you can say 75 times a day without flinching.
Watch out Every clause will feel like a lie when you start. That discomfort is expected, not a sign the sentence is wrong.
- 3
Add 'at least' to the quantified part
Prefix the number in your sentence with 'at least' so the outcome has no ceiling. Orman reasoned that if the powers that be wanted her to make more than ten thousand a month, why limit herself.
Pro tip Pick a number that feels absurd relative to today — hers was roughly 25x her waitressing income.
- 4
Run the three-channel repetition daily
Say it silently 25 times a day into a mirror, at bedtime and on waking. Scream it out loud 25 times. Write it 25 times. All three channels, every single day.
Pro tip Anchor each channel to a fixed trigger — the commute, the mirror, bedtime — so it does not depend on remembering.
Watch out Skipping the written channel is the most common shortcut and removes the slowest, most deliberate rep.
- 5
Sustain it for at least six months without auditing results
Orman ran the full protocol every day for roughly six months. The change in output arrived without her tracking for it.
Pro tip Keep the journal — Orman's one regret is that she did not keep hers.
Watch out Checking weekly for evidence turns the practice back into a wish and reintroduces the doubt you are overwriting.
In the wild
In 1980 Orman was hired at Merrill Lynch as the only female financial advisor among 105 male brokers, by a manager who told her he believed women belonged barefoot and pregnant and that he intended to fire her in six months. She was driving a 1967 Volvo among Mercedes and BMWs, parking on the street to avoid an $80/month fee, and knew nothing about money. She created the truth 'I am young, powerful and successful, producing at least ten thousand dollars a month' — every clause false at the time — and ran it 25 times silently, 25 times shouted, 25 times written, every day.
→ Within roughly six months she was producing far more than ten thousand dollars a month, and went on to become the firm's number six producing broker.
Common mistakes
Phrasing it as a goal instead of a fact
'I want to be powerful' leaves you in the wanting. The sentence must assert the state as already true, which is precisely why it feels dishonest at first.
Capping the outcome with a hard number
Omitting 'at least' turns your best guess into a ceiling. The number is a floor you set while you still have the smallest view of what is possible.
Running it for weeks and quitting
Orman ran the full three-channel protocol daily for around six months. A few weeks of half-effort reps is not the same intervention.
Is it for you?
Best for
Someone entering a field or role where they feel they do not belong and the self-doubt is actively suppressing their performance.
Not ideal for
Someone whose gap is purely technical skill or capital rather than belief, where practice or funding solves the problem faster.
From the transcript
“that's when I decided I needed to create a new truth to get me over my greatest fear”
“I am young powerful and successful producing at least ten thousand dollars a month”
“I said it silently to myself 25 times a day looking in the mirror before I went to bed at night when I woke up…”
From the episode
Suze Orman: Take Control of Your Finances Before It’s Too Late!!
Suze Orman