If you’ve ever made negative statements about yourself, whether verbally —or maybe you’ve just voiced it in your head—whether or not you verbalized it or not, you’re engaging in a damaging habit known as negative self-talk.
Are you a victim of negative self talk?
“There’s no way my target market will pay premium prices.”
“I dread working on budgets.”
“I’ve never been good with money.”
“I’ll never be a 6-figure earner.”
Grrr… “I absolutely suck at this”
By continually telling yourself these lies (and yes, they are lies) what you’re doing is actually reinforcing the beliefs that go along with them…in essence…
What you visualize and believe is what becomes your Truth.
If you’re continually telling yourself that you’re not good with money, then guess what? Simply put…You won’t be.
Believe that budgets are horrible chores to be reviled, and you’ll resist creating one.
Convince yourself that you can’t earn a 6-figure income, and you won’t.
It’s not “The Secret” It’s a scientific fact.
Most of you reading this have probably already watched, or at the very least heard of The Secret…if you haven’t, let me sum it up for ya. Their ideology is basically by you telling the universe what you want, the universe will give it to you. If you can visualize it, you will achieve it.
Well let me let you in on a little secret…this way of thinking was actually first discovered and documented by American sociologists W. I. Thomas and Dorothy Swaine in 1928.
Wikipedia defines a self-fulfilling prophecy as
“The sociopsychological phenomenon of someone “predicting” or expecting something, and this “prediction” or expectation coming true simply because the person believes or anticipates it“
So in essence, this kind of negative self-talk results in poor performance simply because we act as if it’s already true.
If you’re continually telling yourself that you’ll never be a 6-figure earner, then odds are that you’re not going to do the things that 6-figure business owners do.
You won’t work to grow your mailing list (“No one reads my emails anyway”), you won’t increase your coaching rates (“It’s not like I’m some top-earning coach”), and you won’t build a brand worthy of a 6-figure income (“A beautiful brand isn’t necessary at this income level”).
So if you turn the tables and begin to act and think as if you’re already a 6-figure earner, you’ll approach your business quite differently.
Your confidence level will increase. You’ll present a very different brand to your prospective clients. You’ll go out of your way to connect with those who can and will afford to pay your higher rates.
So, is there anything we can do to fight off Negative Self Talk?
Well let’s start off with a very simple step… acknowledgement! The first step toward changing your negative self-talk is to simply acknowledge that you do it. Let’s say, for the next couple of days you keep track of every time you catch yourself making negative statements, whether out loud or in your head.
Make a note of the ones that come up most often for you, and identify their origin if you can. It’s time to turn that thinking around.
The next time you catch yourself saying something like, “I’m no good with money,” take a minute to recall 5 instances where you were good with money. Maybe you paid off your credit cards or saved for a house or built an emergency fund. Rephrase your self-talk to, “I used to be bad with money [if of course that’s true], but now I make smart choices to achieve my goals.”
Just as negative self-talk becomes your truth or your self-fulfilling prophecy, so does positive self-talk.
It’s time to reframe your thinking, and by doing so your business finances are certainly to improve. Now go out there and make 2022 your most positive year and reap the financial rewards.