The Power of Self Talk

Utilising Internal Talk for Personal and Professional Gain

Sep 1, 2009

Many people underestimate the impact self talk can have on achieving personal and professional goals. Having greater awareness towards self talk can yield great results.

Self talk is the internal conversation which goes in the mind that an individual wakes up to until s/he goes to sleep everyday. This internal chatter is the voice in the head which encourages or discourages an individual from taking action depending on the information the subconscious and conscious mind receives. It is also perfectly normal and very healthy to have this constant chatter in the mind.

However, many people underestimate the power of self talk because they do not know how self talk impacts desired results both personally and professionally. If an individual is aware of the type of internal conversations s/he is having on a regular basis, then this is great, because s/he can determine a course of action if the self talk is negative and build on successes if the self talk is positive.

It is estimated that, on average, an individual will have between 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day. A majority of these thoughts will be negative because people are unaware as to how self talk can be utilised for their personal or professional gain. An individual may listen to this constant background talk in the mind, yet be unappreciative of the immediate impact not only on thoughts, but actions and behaviour.

Sports personalities like Tiger Wood, Roger Federer and Michael Phelps are all geniuses at utilising self talk to their advantage. They have mastered the art of using self talk to demonstrate skill and be able to win at the right time just at the time their opponent may well be faltering.

Impact of Internal Chatter

Utilising self talk, to focus on getting the best results, means that an individual has to understand the impact of thought on behaviour. A thought is the precursor to action which, in turn, determines behaviour. Without the thought, action becomes impossible because action is determined by the instructions given from the mind, which is where thoughts reside.

For example, if an individual focuses on negative topics, then this has a direct impact on subsequent action because the thoughts are conditioned to focus on the negative. Even if a positive incident were to occur, the individual would not be able to appreciate the positive experience fully because s/he has spent too much time and effort focusing on the negative.

Cultivating positive self is imperative if great results and goals are to be achieved. However, this can only be done if the mind utilises positive and empowering words, thoughts and actions on a consistent basis. This has an impact on the following:

Using Positive Words and Sentences to Obtain Positive Self Talk

The benefits of using positive words in self talk is because such words are empowering and empowering words lead to greater confidence and self esteem. Phrases such as “can do” and “will do” are more empowering than “can’t do” and “it’s impossible”. Words such as succeeded, positive, able are all positive action words. In the event that an individual finds his/herself drifting back to negative self talk, then the following questions may serve as a useful reminder to recreate the positive self talk and positive action:

Another activity which people may benefit from is the 24 hour test, which determines whether the internal conversations are mainly negative or positive. This serves as a great platform to analyse the impact that self talk this has on daily behaviour. If the individual catches him or herself consistently engaging in negative conversations, then the individual can take come time out and think of effective strategies to overcome the negative self talk.

Adopting a proactive approach to self talk will assist the individual in getting the desired results. Yielding personal power to reign in and keep a check on the internal conversations will serve an individual well. However, this does take a concerted effort on the individual’s part because if left unchecked, self talk will dart from one thought to another like an unchained monkey.

Incidentally, change does not happen overnight, but takes time and harnessing positive self talk for personal and professional gain, becomes easier with time and practice. It may seem like an insurmountable challenge to begin with, but with commitment, desire, consistency and the sheer determination to obtain great results can be achieved by correctly utilising positive self talk for personal and professional gain.

Readers may also be interested in reading positive mindset brings positive change and challenging times requires innovative thinking and maintaining higher self esteem.

The copyright of the article The Power of Self Talk in Self-Awareness is owned by Pervin Shaikh. Permission to republish The Power of Self Talk in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.