Watch What You Say to Yourself

In What to Say When You Talk to Yourself, author Shad Helmstetter says that 80 percent or more of your internal dialogue focuses on your shortcomings; that is, much of what people say to themselves is negative. That means that most of us, all day long, are internally saying things such as, “I didn’t do that right,” or, “My collar is off,” “I should have never sent that e-mail,” or, “I’m fat,” or, “I didn’t do this job well,” or, “They’re going to think I’m stupid.” If anybody ever heard this stuff they’d think we had gone off the deep end.

What about giving yourself some positive message? I mean, you can’t possibly be that bad, can you?

These messages work particularly well when it comes to self-starting:

“I choose to easily complete this transaction.”
“I choose to feel at ease in finishing this project.”
“I choose to masterfully complete this task.”
“I choose to be effective in all aspects of my job.”

Suppose that you have to learn how to operate new equipment at work. It’s taking you longer than you wanted or expected, and you’re now totally stressed out. You’d rather put off the task than continue. You’re probably giving yourself one of these messages internally:

“I can’t stand this.”
“I’d rather be anyplace else.”
“I can’t do this.”
“Get me outta here.”

You could be saying to yourself:

“I easily accept this challenge.”
“I’ve mastered situations that were more difficult than this.”
“I am going to be more productive because I know how to use this to its best
advantage.”
“By tomorrow this will be a piece of cake.”

To make self-talk work for you, particularly for becoming a self-starter, be more conscious of what you say to yourself. If you have a hard time thinking of positive things to say to yourself, take time to generate a list of statements you can use, and either write them down or record them. Such a list will help you replace the negative statements that you more routinely offer yourself. By letting positive, self-boosting statements into your internal dialogue, you enhance the learning process, experience less stress, and feel fat better about yourself.

When in doubt about what type of positive self-talk to employ, self-starters think to themselves: “I choose to feel good about what I’m about to do” or “I choose to easily take appropriate action.” The great news is that you only have to make these silent choices (people might stare if you say them loud) when you’re having trouble getting started and not taking action.


Regards,


Timben