Self-Talk - Develop your Personal Mental Attitude

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Self-talk

Self-talk is whatever you say to yourself about yourself and other people, or whatever you say to yourself about the way the world is.

Whenever you describe to yourself what is going on inside yourself, or with other people, or the way the world is (or seems to be, from your perspective), you are engaged in a process of self-talk.

There are two ways of thinking about self-talk.

Here is the first way.

What you think is true, is what you tell yourself.

The above statement seems self-evident. If you think today is a nice day, then you say to yourself, "Today is a nice day."

But, what I want to draw to your attention, is that the converse is also true.

This is the second way of thinking about self-talk:

What you tell yourself, is what you'll think is true.

Let me say that again because it is important:

Whatever you tell yourself, is what you will think is true.

That sentence is hugely important. Because if you tell yourself today is a terrible day, then you will believe it to be true. And whatever you believe to be true will affect your experience of the day.

If you tell yourself you will fail, then you will begin to believe it. If you believe you will fail, then you probably will.

Look at this:

Most people assume that only the first model is correct. And it is correct.

But the second model is also true and most people don't realise it.

It is vitally important that you tell yourself good things about yourself and that you don't say derogatory things about yourself, to yourself.

• If you say good things about yourself, then they will tend to become true.
• If you say derogatory things about yourself, then they will tend to become true.

Be hyper-cautious of saying derogatory things about your own abilities.

If you are not good at something, don't say, "I am no good at X", state it in the positive, "I am going to get better at X".

This is important.

Think very carefully about the implications of this; then, make the necessary adjustments to your self-talk.

Quiz: How Positive Are You?

Would you say you tend towards having a positive mental attitude, or are you sometimes a bit too negative for your own good?

Find out exactly how positive you are, with our simple quiz.

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