SELF TALK What do you say when you talk to yourself? Are you complimentary? Are you encouraging? I believe it is important to say only things about yourself, and to yourself, that you want to be true. Why? Because you are listening! You learn in so many ways. You can learn to be a goal-setter, to be more creative, to relate to others better and to think positively. You can learn the secrets of success. You may have done all these things. They are inspirational and may get you going for a while. Where, though, is the staying power of those messages? The human brain is an incredibly powerful personal computer control center. It is capable of doing for you anything reasonable that you'd like it to do but you have to know how to treat it. If you treat it in just the right way, and give it carful directions, it will do the right thing. It will work for you in the right way. It is estimated that an average person growing up in a reasonably positive home was told "No!" or what they could NOT do, more than 148,000 times! That is considerable negative programming by any standards. Even half that many times would be too many! "Leading behavioral researchers have told us that as much as seventy-seven percent of everything we think is negative, counterproductive and works against us. At the same time, medical researchers have said that as much as seventy-five percent of all illnesses are self-induced. It's no wonder. What if the researchers are correct? That means that as much as seventy-five percent or more of our programming is the wrong kind."* And most of us took it to heart! When you hear the same words and thoughts repeatedly, it etches itself in your mind and you take it to heart. Repetition is a convincing argument, isn't it? Unless we erase or replace that negative programming, it will stay with us permanently. It will affect and direct our thoughts and actions. Have you changed your programming? I hope so. ALWAYS REMEMBER----WHAT YOU PAY ATTENTION TO EXPANDS! * This statement came from Shad Helmstetter in What To Say When You Talk To Yourself

Yes. "What the mind can believe - the mind can achieve.". I think this a Napoleon Hill quote. Kay

Thanks, Tim. This deserves more than one reading. Lawton

Tim, Thanks for introducing this author to me. I had heard of his book but hadn't read it. I learned somewhere that the part of your mind that's listening when you are engaging in self-talk has no objective way to determine truth from untruth. In other words, it believes you. To extend the computer analogy in the article, remember the old computer saying: Garbage In, Garbage Out. This must be why affirmations work. If you constantly tell your subconcious that a given condition exists, it (your subconcious) will believe you and in turn induce you to take actions that will lead to that being the truth, whether that condition is a negative or positive one. This is a powerful reminder to pay careful attention to what we allow into our minds. Cheri

Thank you Tim for opening my mind today as for yesterday it drew a blank.Thanks