Tell The Negative Committee That Meets Inside Your Head To Sit Down And Shut Up

“Tell the negative committee that meets inside your head to sit down and shut up!” – Ann Bradford

I still remember as a child seeing my mother standing in the kitchen talking to herself. No joke. She would literally have entire conversations with herself. At the time I just assumed my Mom must be a little bit crazy, after all the woman had ten children so by rights she was entitled to be at least somewhat nuts. Then I grew up and became an adult myself and realized that those conversations she had with herself didn’t mean she was crazy at all, in fact they were a stroke of genius, and probably the only way she kept her sanity while raising those ten kids (or I would argue nine since I was of course, an angel child).

When I became the CEO of my first company I found myself having all kinds of conversations with myself, only I found it was far less suspect to have them inside my head, rather than out loud because, let’s face it, doing it out loud is just plain awkward. But I learned quickly that there were two types of conversations I could have with myself: the positive and uplifting conversations, or, the negative and destructive ones. I learned that the key to being successful came down to my own ability to limit those conversations in my head to the positive and uplifting ones.

Research has shown that it is our thoughts that drive our emotions, and our emotions that drive our actions. Therefore, if we want to act in a way that will bring us the most success, we have to control our emotions by learning to control our thoughts.

One way I have found to control my own negative self-talk is to immediately ask myself, “How would I feel if someone was saying that to my child?” That particular question is the perfect kick in the behind to help motivate me to snap out of it and change my thought pattern. If the voice in your head is saying something that you can’t imagine saying to a person you love then you shouldn’t be saying it to yourself.

Try telling yourself how AWESOME you are today! YOU DESERVE TO HEAR IT!

~Amy Rees Anderson

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