Walk through your workplace, shopping mall or while chatting to your friends and it’s fairly likely that you are going to have considerable examples of people being engaging in negative and limiting self-talk. I’m not saying that they are wrong, a lot of people genuinely have no idea that they are doing this. Let me give you a few examples that you may be exposed to or actually repeat yourself.
- I’m scared of flying ….
- I’m a terrible public speaker ….
- I can’t spell ….
- I’m so fat ….
I too have been guilty of one or two of these in the past – changing speech habits require constant vigilance! Every time your use one of these negative descriptive sentences you are giving your subconscious a COMMAND. You are telling your subconscious to be a certain way regardless of what evidence there is to the contrary. Also when you use a sentence like “I am a ….. terrible public speaker”, this indicates that this state of being is intrinsically part of who you are in that it cannot be changed. Repeated often enough, you will reinforce and believe this.
If you must describe yourself in such a way, consider saying something like “I am improving my public speaking skills”. This means that this is no longer an unchangeable part of yourself! Over time, changing the way we speak will become a habit.
Spend the next week observing what negative commands you are giving your subconscious and write them down. Then each time you hear yourself using one of these, stop yourself and reframe it to a positive. Let me know how you go!
Love,
Bianca
