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Harness the power of your inner voice


Welcome to Love Mondays, a weekly newsletter designed as a 3-minute hit to fire up the other 10,077 minutes of your week.
 

Harness the power of your inner voice


Ever caught yourself having a conversation with yourself? Don't worry, we all do it! According to one study, we talk to ourselves at a rate equivalent to speaking 4,000 words per minute - 10 times faster than verbal speech - and research has found that up to 80% of our thoughts are negative.

This week let's make an effort to identify and replace negative self-talk, or even better,  prevent it from occurring in the first place.

Is your language mostly positive or negative when talking to yourself? Write down your observations.



Consider: am I kind and compassionate in my self-talk or do I tend to be critical and harsh?

Practice: challenging negative self-talk and replacing it with more helpful, positive thoughts.

Decide to: shift your self-talk in a more positive and supportive direction.
 


Your language matters


I have yet to meet an elite athlete or high-performing leader who doesn't harness the power of positive self-talk as a driving force to achieve their best performance. And it's a powerful tool that we can all use to achieve our goals, improve our mental well-being and boost our overall confidence.

Psychologist 
Martin Seligman's concept of 'explanatory style', suggests that the we explain events can shape our outlook on life. Seligman's research also indicates that optimism can improve physical and mental well-being, and contribute more to career success than talent alone. The good news is that we can learn optimism to cultivate a more positive perspective on life.

Today, try and catch your explanatory style (both spoken and unspoken) to become aware of whether you index more on the optimist or pessimist side.




Image source: Chase Mielke 



After reflecting, pick one big opportunity or challenge you're working on and see if there's an opportunity to reset your explanatory style (or that of your team) to one that's more optimistic.

Enjoy your week friends.

Love your Mondays.