This weekend I started reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. I am only 50 pages in so this #weeklydigest isn’t going to be a book review, but something he said within the first few pages really resonated with me. He mentioned ‘Self Talk’….
Come on, who will admit, you talk to yourself, right?
I do, in lots of different situations, but especially when I am running.
The important question we need to ask ourselves is what are you saying? Do you notice? Are you talking yourself out of something or telling yourself you can’t do it? Are you being thankful, grateful, or arrogant or complaisant? Are you complimenting yourself on a job well done or reminding yourself how amazing you are and how your life is wonderful?
Words are very powerful.
You see what you say to yourself really does make a difference to the day, week, month, and life you have. Even your business results will be affected.
Many of us (I’m so bad at this) really don’t think about what we are saying to ourselves each and every day. We just say things as we have done (probably) for years. Looking in the mirror you will be commenting on your appearance. Maybe if you drop something – “I’m so accident-prone” or “I’m so clumsy”. My husband often says he’s “terrible with computers”, he believes this 100% but it’s not actually true. My thing is “I’m not good enough”, oh and “I can’t write, I’m terrible at English.”
We all need to become more aware of what we are saying to ourselves and show more care and positivity. James Clear also mentions the Japanese Railway ‘Point and Calling’ Safety System which helps their teams be more conscious of what they are seeing. In doing their daily station and train checks they point out what they are looking at and verbally call out what they are actually seeing. (This helped reduce errors by 85%. Positive Self-talk has also been shown to improve business performance. https://idillionaire.com/blog/the-relationship-between-self-talk-and-your-bottom-line.html.)
Why don’t we try doing something similar same today…every time you talk to yourself say it out loud and take note of what you are saying.
Is it positive? Are you complimenting yourself, biggin yourself up?
Is it negative? Are you complaining? Are you putting yourself down?
Keep a little check of the balance, How many positive comments? How many negative? And at the end of the day look at the numbers. Are you your biggest fan? Are you helping yourself get better, do more and have a brilliant life?
I did this little exercise whilst running this morning; so far I’m 4 positive, 2 negative…(I really did think I was going to die on the way back to the house.) Let’s see what the rest of the day brings.
Come on people, give yourself some self-love, PMA PEOPLE, PMA!
(****PMA - POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE!)