The importance of Self Talk

Self talk and your inner voice.

Our self-image gets reinforced by ‘self-talk’, by which I mean the ‘inner voice’ – the voice inside our head that for many people annoyingly like to brood over mistakes, point out what might go wrong and is highly critical. That was me and my family (my mum, in particular, is a proper worrier) and I used to go to bed fretting about what people thought of me and all the bad things that had happened and could happen to me. If this voice is constantly repeating phrases like ‘‘I can’t do this’, ‘I’m rubbish at this’ and ‘I’m not good enough’ then it’s bound to affect your self-perception.

Self-talk can also be the words you use when talking to others. So whenever anybody asked me how I was doing I tended to say ‘yeah, not bad’ or ‘yeah, all right’. Now, I’ve learned to say ‘yeah, I'm really, really good’ or ‘I'm amazing’ so that I’m constantly reinforcing to myself that I’m in a good place. And, sure enough, it helps me to feel better and more positive.

Now I never speak negatively to myself. Ever. I’m much more upbeat. I’m thinking and saying phrases like ‘I’ll be good at this’, ‘I’m expecting this to go well’ and ‘I’m going to prove them wrong.’

Often psychological breakthroughs lead to achievement in reality so think about whether you have a self-image that may not allow you to fulfil your full potential. Listen to your inner voice. Everything you say – whether in your head or out loud - has a consequence.