Affirmative thinking is a mindset often taught in self-help books and “how to be a millionaire” books. We can use some of these techniques to help us out in the field. The concept is simple. Think about what you want, every day, and it will happen. For example (in theory) you could tell yourself every day that you will earn a million dollars next year. If you do this every day, you’ll have an excellent chance of making that a reality. I’m a firm believer of affirmative thinking, even though I don’t apply the millionaire thought process, but have applied it to others goals. I don’t believe there is any “magic” or “voodoo” to this. I think it’s all based off of logic and opportunity. The idea of things just happening auto-magically is incorrect. What I do believe is that it trains your mind to see opportunity and to explore other avenues to maintain your goal on a regular and consistent basis.

Okay, enough mumbo jumbo, how can this be applied to metal detecting? The first step is to think of goals. What do you want to achieve in metal detecting? Is it to find a gold coin? Or is it to find that great Civil War relic? Once you have that set, think about this every day. Every day when you wake up, say to yourself, “I’m going to find X this year”. Once the seed is planted, you’ll begin to think about how to achieve your goal. What do I need to do to get that gold coin? Your mind starts breaking this down the goal into pieces. You might say, “I need to go out way more to increase my opportunity to find that coin”. Or you might say it’s about more research before hitting the field. Once your mind has decided that it’s an achievable goal, you begin to explore how to meet those needs. How to increase your field time. How to increase your research time. You’ll catch yourself talking to new people and immediately wonder if this is a possible new metal detecting site and ask them? If you don’t end up with that specific treasure at years’ end, you at least improve your detecting skills, and hopefully make new contacts for the following year.

If anything, the affirmative thinking will result in action rather than complaining that you are not finding your treasures.