What You Tell Yourself Comes True

When I was a kid, my mom would always have me take swimming classes during the summer.  I always told myself that I hated that, and that It’s so hard to swim a 100 meters straight.

Guess who never had fun during swim class, and couldn’t do a straight 100 meter swim?

Me.  And I never realized until much later, why that always happened.

Ever heard of “Self-fulfilling Prophecies”?

 

What you tell yourself, comes true.

The language we use, is a reflection of what’s inside of us.  What we truly believe, and how we see things.

This is the words and phrases that naturally occurs to you.  What you feel, and how you’re saying your thoughts, mentally.

It’s the unfiltered thoughts we have, coming form our subconscious, taking form with what, and how we say things.

Even to ourselves.

Especially, to ourselves.

I remember saying that I could never do a 100 meter swim, with such fear, disdain, carelessness, and disgust.  It’s not that I could never do it.  I didn’t want to, at the time.

What I was saying in my head, was also coupled with emotion and feelings.  I was emphatically screaming in my head that “I’d never be able to do it!  Why does my coach insist!  This is stupid!  It’s clear I’d never be able to do it!!”

And so, I never did.

In recent memory, I recall telling myself “I’d never amount to anything!  This job is all that I have!”

My life never did move forward, no matter how much I hated it, because I kept saying those statements to myself, and I believed in them.

I had to start somewhere,  I had to turn it around.

Where did I begin?

With what I was telling myself.

 

You provide your own criticism, or encouragement.

My self-talk was my greatest critic.  It was time to turn it into my greatest ally.

I started asking myself the question “Really?”.  I further questioned the truth and inevitability of my statements, and consequently, of my beliefs.

I encouraged myself, even when I was feeling down, and still telling myself the truth.

“You can find a way to make this work.”  “How would you do it?”

“You have made great steps, and can continue to make an impact on the lives of others, and consequently, your own as well.”

And in the times that I felt afraid, and not confident, I’d tell myself a simple, yet effective “you can do it!” over and over again.

From shifting your view to see things in a positive light, and consciously asking yourself to see the positive and possibilities, that serves as a start to keep giving yourself positive self-talk.

I provided my own encouragement, even when other people didn’t, and even when they said otherwise.  Keep on going, and keep giving yourself positive self-talk.

Until you believe.

 

Hear it enough times, you’ll believe it.

And it’s a fallacy that we can use to our advantage.

Growing up, my parents kept telling me that money is so hard to make, and that I’ll never make it anywhere without a job.

And growing up, I believed that.  I found reasons to believe that, because that was what I always heard, and I looked for supporting situations and evidence to keep that belief, and make those beliefs come true.

I started off listing down the beliefs that I wanted to have.  Beliefs that would make my life better, if I believed them, and if they would come true.  I looked at my limiting beliefs and negative habits of self-talk, and I turned them around.

What would I rather be saying that would support me reach the kind of life that I wanted to have?

And I wrote them down, and read them every day, when I woke up, and before I slept.

I started with that, and with another document I grabbed off the internet.  A document of 100 positive affirmations.  I read that daily too.

Now, I have my own script, which I record, read, and listen back to daily.

What I was doing, is conditioning myself to believe otherwise.

I was conditioning myself to see and believe positive beliefs and affirmations, and to be ready to see and grab the opportunities and proof that they are true, as I go about my daily business in the real world.

Thanks to the effort, and in believing that there are other ways to live my life, and that it doesn’t have to be so hard to earn money, I was able to get myself out of an unfavorable situation, and live a better life.

But it’s always a continuous growth.  Now, the challenge for me is to get to another higher level.

Higher and higher.

Keep talking to yourself.

Positively.

Encouragingly.

Lovingly.

 

What are your self-talk habits?

What do you tell yourself?

What are your real thoughts and feelings, that you mutter under your breath?

Or keep repeating in your mind?

Do they support you?  Or hinder you?

What can you keep saying to yourself to support the growth that you want to have?

Say them.

Speak them.

Keep on encouraging yourself.

Remember, what you tell yourself, comes true.

 

What self-talk habits do you have?   Please share in the comments below!