Me, Myself & Albert
Posted on May 24, 2017 by Creed Branson, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Conquering Negative Self-Talk
We are only able to conquer our self talk by affirming the good we say to our self, and addressing the things of the past without dwelling on our mistakes. The Cherokee Indians have a parable that goes something like this:
“A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear. The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed.”
Your self talk ultimately reveals itself in how you act toward yourself and others.
The way you approach the world mirrors the way you see it. If you see the world as alive and wonderful, you’ll approach the world with joy and curiosity. If you see the world as dangerous, you’ll approach it with hesitation and fear. Simply changing how you choose to see the world can do wonders for your self talk.
Every one of us has an inner critic that limits our ability to move into our desired future. These thoughts translate into feelings of inadequacy. Negative self talk can lead to self limiting beliefs. Negative self talk limits our thinking and can limit our success!
I’ve given my inner critic a name. I call him Albert. When I think about Albert, I visualize his famous sticking his tongue out photograph.
I chose the name Albert because this voice always told me,
“You’re not smart enough.”
Experts say we all have, I’m not “fill in the blank” enough statements. By naming mine Albert, I was able to remind myself that most people aren’t as smart as that famous physicist. Further, by naming my inner critic I was able to minimize his control over me.
This is an example of moving from my subjective reality to an objective reality. However paralyzing Albert might have been at the time, he also produced something great in me: an insatiable desire for knowledge. Albert used to be my adversary, now he’s my friend.
