We all do it! Talk to our self. Sometimes we say it out loud, "Hey you jerk" when someone cuts us off while we are driving. Sometimes we only say it in our head. But we do it all the time.

Find a quiet place and relax and listen to your self-talk. You may be quite surprised at what you say to yourself.

If you make a mistake, do you chastise yourself? Call yourself stupid or a dummy? If you do, you are programming your mind to believe that you are a failure. Your mind believes that it has your best interests at heart, but frequently it takes over and controls your actions without having all of the necessary information.

Your mind is monitoring a huge number of things simultaneously. It is recording what you are thinking, what you are seeing, what you are hearing, what you are saying, what you are smelling, what you are touching, the feel of your clothes on your skin, and the shoes on your feet. It is also monitoring your environment and all of your bodily functions. Most of these things it doesn't pay much attention to until it detects something different or threatening. If it detects that your right shoe is pinching your little toe, it brings it to your attention. If it detects the smell of gas or smoke in your home, it brings it to your attention. If it detects something that it perceives to be a threat to your well being, it takes action to protect you.

If you have been constantly bombarding it with negative self talk, then every time you start to do something it prepares you to fail, because that is what you trained it to do. If you try to do something new or in a different way, your mind says. "Hey don't do that, you know that you can't do it." As a result, you are defeated before you start because your mind, thinking it is protecting you, won't let you put your best effort into what you are attempting.

To improve yourself, you must reprogram your mind. This will not be easy! Your mind doesn't like change. It wants to continue to support the beliefs you have taught it over the years by your self-talk.

Your first step is to change your self-talk. Instead of calling yourself stupid or a dummy when you make a mistake, make a conscious effort to say, "Well that didn't work, what can I learn from that mistake?" Try and find something positive to say to yourself every time you do something or think of something. Give yourself a mental pat on the back for every action you take or idea you have. In this way, over time, you will reprogram your mind. It didn't get negative and pessimistic over night and it won't become positive and enthusiastic over night either.

As you progress with persistence and dedication, you will notice that you make fewer mistakes and accomplish more things satisfactorily.

Continue your positive self-talk in all situations and one day you will wake up feeling like a new person. Keep up the good work and congratulations!