Tell the voice to shut up!

You talk to yourself, come on admit it, there is no embarrassment in it, its normal.
The main thing about talking to yourself more then anyone else does is to understand the power of this. The number one strongest influence in your life is probably not who you think it is, it is your voice. The voice takes on different tones based on who or what is influencing you. If you are around motivating people and go to do a task then the message and tones from the voice is- come on you can do this. If you are around negative miserable people then the voice is going to tear you down. It seems strange but not only do you talk to yourself, your voice is one of the components that defines who you are as a person.
You might need a few exercises to start to bring an awareness to this voice.
The emotions that you have are greatly influenced by the thoughts that you think, and the thoughts that you think are greatly influenced by the voice, the self-talk that you have. But we should back up further, stay with me, the self-talk that you have is greatly influenced by the philosophy you have about yourself and how you fit in your environment.
You will never rise above the definition you have for yourself. This is further proof that thoughts are things. They can be the chains that anchor you down, or the wings that elevate you to rise above.
So what if you define yourself in a way that is keeping your imprisoned by negative self talk. It is not merely enough to begin talking to yourself differently. Simply telling yourself you are succeeding in life's key areas if you are really producing poor results does not produce long term change. This is a good start but it tends to be delusional if your definition at the core of yourself is not congruent.
This next part may offend, if it does please take it or leave it, it has to be said:
In order to change your self talk you have to back up further and view yourself in a way that God sees you. You are his child. You are infinitely powerful. On days that you feel the greatest inside and you see glimpses of your potential he has placed that vision in your heart.
Keeping this in mind let me share some steps for a workshop I have been developing:
1) Grab a notepad, something you can carry with you discretely
2) For one day, make a mark every time you are consciously aware you are talking to yourself. This is a pass-fail activity, if you participate you pass if you don't well commit to doing it again. The main purpose for making a mark for each time you hear yourself talk is to bring an awareness.
3) The activation step, Define the ideal you. This can be done many ways but I created a worksheet that works amazingly at allowing and giving yourself permission to see the ideal you.
4) Copy on a sheet of paper some characteristics of the vision you have for you. I have an affirmation worksheet to "Pop" the emotions (activating ingredient) from the exercise.
5) The next day after noticing yourself having self talk of any kind pull out your definition of the ideal you, pull the sheet out and see if the self-talk works for your vision of you
6) If it does not tell the voice to "SHUT UP".
7) Go back to the activation affirmations and replace the gap of thought with your "philosophy" or vision of you.
8) Act as if. The emotions resulting from affirmations are strong.
9) Create a habit of some successful activity to re-enforce this affirmation, again I have a worksheet to help with this.
10) Create this habit of being good to you. You will be with you for the rest of your life. Do want to elevate and edify yourself towards the ideal you or tear yourself down and be the victim of a negative philosophy or definition of yourself?

Joshua Andrus
www.hiresite.info