What you believe about yourself is developed over time by how others treat you, talk to you, interact with you and what they tell you about yourself. Whether you realize it or not, what you really think about yourself has been long established, and was influenced by many factors that were beyond your control.
Your inner voice, the one that you use to speak to yourself, is one of the greatest sources of influence in your life. Whether you build a business, pursue a goal, run a marathon or chase a career dream, it is only achieved if you tell yourself that you can, in fact, do it. This voice holds great power, often more than we ever imagined, and we often blindly follow its instructions, whether or not the voice speaks truth. Have you ever told yourself any of the following?
“You can’t do that–you don’t have the right degree.”
“Don’t take that job. You would be terrible at sales.”
“You shouldn’t start a business because it’s too hard and too time consuming.”
“You can’t…”
“You shouldn’t…”
“You don’t…”
One of the hardest habits that you will ever have to break is to learn to ignore the negative voice that only tells you that you can’t. If you find that what you think about yourself is actually holding you back, preventing you from moving forward or remains a source of negative influence in your life, then it’s time to turn that voice off. What you have been trained to think about yourself your entire life does NOT get to determine your success and happiness in the future. YOU possess the power to say NO to those whispers of doubt and take the fist step toward your goals.
Prove yourself wrong. Make a list of your accomplishments and tell yourself that YOU CAN and YOU WILL continue to move forward. Thankfully, what you believe about yourself can change over time, and those whispers of doubt and negativity will begin to fade. Whether you tell yourself you can or you cannot, you are probably right. When speaking to yourself, choose your words wisely.
