Motivate yourself with positive self-talk
Let me tell you a quick story. When I was working in the Beer
industry I was intrigued by our top ten successful Bar and Hotel
owning customers. The majority of them, to put it tactfully,
didn't seem to be particularly sophisticated business people. In
other words, they didn't seem to have had any kind of business
training or acquired any qualifications.
I was discussing with my boss one day how these people had
become so successful and he said - "They don't know they can't
do it. You and I Alan see the pitfalls, we know about business
and we see all the ways we could fail. These people only see how
they'll succeed.
As you'll gather, this was a pretty powerful message for me -
these successful business owners were talking to themselves in a
much more positive way than less successful people.
Your level of success in terms of your happiness, emotional
wellbeing and anything else you desire is a direct result of how
you talk to yourself. The most important relationship you'll
ever have is the one you have with yourself.
Listen to the self-talk that goes on in your head and ask
yourself - "Is what I'm saying allowing me to be confident, on
top and going for it?" If so - great! "Or is it holding me back
and stopping me achieve my goals?" If this is the case - STOP
IT, change the program!
By talking to yourself in a positive manner, you'll start to
feel physically better. Words have an enormous power to create
change in the chemistry of your body. Your heart rate, blood
pressure, muscles, nerves and breathing will all react to the
words you say to yourself.
Take a moment to say some words to yourself such as - "Holidays,
warm sunshine, sandy beaches, swimming, chilled beer, delicious
food. Are you starting to get good feelings? I hope you are.
Maybe words like home, family, children or Christmas give you
some good feelings. Or how about the word "sex?" I bet that
could change the chemistry of your body.
So think about the things you say to yourself and make every
statement in the present tense. Don't say, for example - "I'm
going to make a success of this business" or "I'm going to get
organised," or "I'm going to be much more confident."
Say - "I am totally in control of my life. I am totally
confident and positive. I'm achieving my goals. I have
determination and drive." What you're actually doing here is
re-programming your subconscious. If you talk to yourself in a
positive way, that's what your subconscious will focus on.
Top sports people know all this stuff; they know that they need
to talk to themselves in a positive way to be successful.
Research has proved that the success of the world's top golfers
is determined by 20 per cent physical ability and 80 per cent
mental ability. In the day-to-day tasks that we face in our
life, we should be no different from sports people.
If you talk to yourself in a negative way - that's what your
subconscious will focus on. If you think illness, you'll become
ill. If you think doom and gloom - that's what you'll get. But
if you think - health happiness and success - you're already
there.
Let me finish on another short story. In the city where I live,
parking a car can be difficult. Say for example I need to visit
a bookstore and I decide to take my car. I say to myself - "I'm
going to park my car outside the bookstore." If I have someone
with me they'll inevitably say - "You're nuts Alan, you'll never
get parked there, far better to park several blocks away in a
quieter area." And guess what - most of the time I park outside
the bookstore. It doesn't happen all the time but talking to
yourself in a positive way is much more likely to get you the
results you want.
Put this to the test right away; for the next 7 days listen to
what you say to yourself and if it's negative, change it to
something more positive and you'll start to feel better, look
better and have much more success.