Posted on July 8, 2011 // 0 Comments

Feeling passionate for what you do in business is always affected by what you believe. No matter what you say out loud, the ‘inner voice’ is the one you listen to most. It’s role is to encourage you to move forwards, but what if it criticises and pulls you back from the success you really want? What then?

Often referred to as your inner chatterbox, this is the voice that has an opinion, reminding you what beliefs you hold in that area; positive and negative. Being aware of those beliefs will impact all areas of your life, including business and the decisions you make whilst in that business. Fortunately, the internal dialogue (what you say to yourself throughout the day) gives clues as to the beliefs you might have. Take a look at the following list:

• “Your can’t do that”
• “They’ll only laugh at you”
• “You always fail at this sort of thing”
• “You’ll never be the best”
• “Just give up now before you hurt yourself”
• “You’re a fool – they don’t know it yet, but one day they will”

Do Any Sound Familiar?

Dr Peter Alexander suggests people have between 50,000-80,000 thoughts per day, and even though many are the same ones repeated over and over, between 75%-80% of those thoughts tend to be negative.

Whilst your internal chatterbox is always there and ready to give an opinion, when it’s negative you still have the potential of rewriting it into a positive belief or affirmation

Whether you believe you can, or whether you believe you can’t, you’re probably right

- Henry T Ford.

If the beliefs you have are holding you back in your business or career, and you have an idea your inner chatterbox could do with being more positive, do the following exercise to replace those negative beliefs with more empowering ones.

Exercise

1. Become aware of how your inner chatterbox communicates with you. Is it a sound? It might be words, or it could be pictures. Some people process their beliefs as feelings (‘I just felt it in the pit of my stomach/I felt joy in my soul’). Over the next day or so begin to listen to what the communication is for you, and also to the possibility that it might be a combination.
2. Next step is also to become aware of how many beliefs you tend to repeat, where and in what situations do they appear? Are they positive, or negative? If you’re not sure, ask yourself if they enable you to do something, or disable and stop you achieving what you want.
3. Keep a list of the positive beliefs you have as well as the negative ones you’d like to change.
4. Now it’s time to challenge the old negative beliefs one at a time, and replace each with a more empowering version capable of supporting you when you need it. For example; ‘Why would anyone listen to me?’ might become, ‘the knowledge I have……makes me valuable to anyone.’ Or, ‘I’m too shy to do that’, could become, ‘I take a leap everyday and become braver and braver in the process’.
5. Lastly, as you now have a new belief, it needs to grow and become strong for it to survive and become part of your supportive inner chatterbox. It needs evidence. What big and little steps can you take each day, everyday, from now on that will provide your new belief with concrete associations?

Still have a sense of doubt? Then challenge yourself. ‘Act as if’ this really could work, and give yourself 6 weeks. Imagine, 6 weeks to a new you. After all, it is said that if we do something regularly everyday for 6 weeks we’ll do it for the rest of our life. The question is, will you?

Let me know!!

Category : Blog