Tip #11 – When you talk to yourself – say NICE things! Self-talk is the way you talk to yourself, or your inner voice. You might not even be aware that you’re doing it, but you almost certainly are. Your inner voice or self-talk combined with your conscious thoughts and unconscious beliefs, or biases provides a way for your brain to interpret and process your daily work and personal experiences.
Is your self-talk cheerful and supportive, or is it negative an self-defeating? This inner voice can have a positive affect on your life when it’s positive. It can calm fears and help bolster your confidence. Unfortunately, most self-talk is prone to be negative and would include statements like “Can’t I do anything right?” or “I can’t believe I just did that.” or “I know it’s now going to happen.”
Successful people often credit their success to their positive inner voice. In some cases, even a critical inner voice can push someone to achieve more by raising awareness of the obstacles to overcome to succeed. However, self-talk creates self-image which does impact your real performance. Over time negative self-talk can talk a toll on your confidence, happiness and can limit your professional and personal growth.
So, how can you make your self-talk work for you? Start out by closely monitoring your self-talk so it is not focused on second guessing or being critical of yourself. This will sabotage your success and happiness and ability to transform your life. It can also cause others to doubt your abilities. In addition, it can cause you to become less successful at finding creative solutions for problems and prevent you from enjoying the life you deserve.
When you hear your inner voice being critical, follow your normal dialogue with a positive statement. For example: If your inner dialogue was “Well, that was a stupid thing to do” follow that negative thought with positive reinforcement like, “But I learned something and that won’t happen again!” When your inner voice is positive, it empowers you to accomplish or even surpass your goals and objectives in both your professional and personal life.
Bottom line, starting today – when you talk to yourself “Say nice things!”