Self-Talk – Friend or Foe

The true key to your success!

Have you ever met that little voice that you hear in your head? 

If you haven’t, then go stand in front of a mirror sometime and introduce yourself to him / her. 

That’s right, that voice is no other than yourself talking to you! “Hello, you!” That is your self-talk. It is your subconscious mind talking to you. 

So do you ever take a moment and pay attention to what you say to yourself? It can be a very eye-opening experience. 

The real question … Is your self-talk your friend, or your foe? 

Truth be told, all of us can be our own best friend and worst enemy at different times and in different situations. The key is which is more dominant – the friend or the foe?

Why is this important? Because that inner voice is what controls your success and happiness in life.  That inner voice is the product of how you have been taught to think over your lifetime. 

How do you start to get to know that inner self? By listening to how you speak. 

To various situations in life do you say things like

• What an idiot! I really screwed up that presentation. Well, that’s the end of my career.
• I can’t do that in just one week. It’s impossible.
• How ridiculous! I can’t teach myself how to think more positively.

Or, do you say things like

• I can do better than that. I’ll prepare and rehearse more next time. Maybe I will take a class to help me be a better public speaker.
• It’s a lot to do, but I’ll break it down into steps that are easier to do. I might see if I can get some help too.
• Learning to think more positively can help me in so many ways. I really need to work on this.

Studies have shown that by age 35 we live about 95% out of our habits. What this means is that 95% of what we do comes from the programming in our subconscious mind. We don’t think, we just do, based on our internal program. That is what controls that inner voice, or our self-talk. That inner voice is what empowers us to great feats or limits us from becoming who we’re capable of becoming. 

It is important for all of us to realize that we are more capable, more powerful, than we realize. It is that inner voice (or our inner program) that controls just how far we go. 

The obvious next question is can we change our inner voice (or our inner programming) so that we can change our results in life? 

The answer is a resounding … 

“YES!” We can! 

That is awesome to know! The next obvious question is – How?

Back in 1937, Napoleon Hill in his landmark book, Think and Grow Rich, described the process of changing how we talk to ourselves (our self-talk) through a process he called “Auto-Suggestion.” 

Napoleon described auto-suggestion as, “the agency of control through which an individual may voluntarily feed his subconscious mind on thoughts of a creative nature, or, by neglect, permit thoughts of a destructive nature find their way into this rich garden of the mind.”

Napoleon also says that, “Nature has so built man that he has absolute control over the material which reaches his subconscious mind,” but this does not mean that man “always exercises this control.” 

What all this boils down to is that we have the ability to make our self-talk our friend based on the process of auto-suggestion. Through the persistent repetition of positive affirmations to our self, we can change our self-talk. Positive affirmations “well-mixed with emotion or feeling” can start the process of turning our inner voice into the friend we need it to be. 

If you would like to learn more about how to effectively use auto-suggestion to help you be the person you want to be, then I would suggest that you start studying the book Think and Grow Rich. This is not a book that is meant to be read once; it is meant to be studied over a lifetime. To become the master of your own destiny requires you to grow and mature over time. The success you want won’t happen without a consistent effort on your part.

If you are planning to study this material, I would also like to suggest that you find a group of like-minded people that can help you to understand, embrace and apply these principles. There is one group that I know that studies a chapter a week from Think and Grow Rich. They are led by Tim Burgess, who has been personally studying Think and Grow Rich every day for over twenty-four years. 

For over ten years now, Tim has been leading Think and Grow Rich Simplified study groups every week on Thursdays at 9:00 PM (EST). This book has made such a massive impact on Tim’s life that he now has a passion for helping other people see the power of these principles. If you would like to learn more about Tim’s study group click on the following link - Think and Grow Rich Simplified.