Here’s How Elite Performers Silence Negative Self-Talk
Written by Benjamin P. Hardy, The Ladders
August 24, 2018 via TheLadders.com.
95% of the thoughts you have had today are the same thoughts you had yesterday. How many of those thoughts are actually true?
Just because a thought enters your mind doesn’t make it true. Yet, we tend to believe our own thoughts because they are inside of us. Many, if not most, of the thoughts that you have should quickly be discarded. Believing in something is not a passive act. It takes consent. It takes buying-into. You must choose not to believe in the negative and limiting thoughts that enter your mind.
Here’s the challenge — In order to pursue big goals and achieve things you’ve never done, you must embrace uncertainty. The uncertainty of your goals and aspirations creates an easy target for your subconscious to send negative, limiting, and fear-based signals. So, if you want to pursue big goals, expect an onslaught of negative thoughts. Here’s specifically what will happen:
Your mind will try to keep you in your past
Some of the most difficult negative thoughts will relate to your past. If you’ve been relatively successful in the past, your mind will always make you believe that you’re not as good as you used to be. Your mind will try to convince you that you’ve lost your touch. That you’ve gone off the rails. That you’ve taken a wrong turn and need to go back.
Don’t believe these lies.
You can’t go back. And you shouldn’t go back. You’re actually far better than you used to be. You’re more evolved and have more capability and insight to offer. But the uncertainty of the enormous goals you’re pursuing is exposing your subconscious emotional blocks. Your subconscious mind is playing a hindsight bias game with you. It’s easy looking back and saying to yourself, “I must have known what I was doing. Because everything seemed to work out.”
You didn’t know what you were doing. Your memories about those experiences have changed based on your current circumstances. In the moment, when you were pursuing your previous goals, the future was just as uncertain as the future you’re pursuing now. You weren’t better then. You just kept going. You fought the resistance. You choose to remain committed to something. According to Strategic Coach founder, Dan Sullivan, commitment is not doing something because you know the plan. Rather, commitment is not knowing the plan and having the courage to deal with uncertainty.
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