Change Your Negative Self-Talk Into Positive Reinforcement by Celebrating Your Successes!

“Authenticity” is one of those buzzwords that we hear a lot in the media and in publications. With this topic, many are talking about how to be more authentic in their personal and professional lives. This week, I wanted to talk a little bit about being authentic with yourself.

It’s all about identifying the person that you are inside and being true to who he or she is without worrying what the world expects you to be. We have a habit of sending ourselves negative messages every day when thinking about certain things in our lives. It’s time to get above and beyond that behavior.

Messages like, “You really need to lose weight”, or ‘Why do I always screw this up?” can muddy the waters of positive thinking in many. They don’t sound bad on the surface, but when you consistently tell yourself that something is wrong with you or that you aren’t good enough, your psyche starts to believe it.

Enjoying successes and seeing the best in one’s self can make anyone feel like they’re on top of the world. Contact Rice Psychology Group in Tampa today to learn what you can do to make this happen!

Setting Goals

There’s no better way to create positive messages than by setting goals. Click To Tweet

Change your negative self-talk into positive reinforcement by setting goals and celebrating your successes! Here are a few things you can do to help you along the way to achieving this:

• Change negative aspects into positive ones. Tell yourself, “I want to fit into these jeans. What can I do to make that happen?”, or “I’m really struggling with this. What can I do to help myself get better at it?” Learn to be more mindful about how you talk to yourself.

• Listen to what you’re telling yourself. Do you see something that you need to work on or want to change to help you feel better about yourself? There’s no better way to create positive messages than by setting goals. If you want to fit into those jeans, then come up with a way to make it happen.

• Create a list of steps to accomplish your goals. What do you need to do to make an expectation into a reality? Do you need to create a workout schedule? How about putting together healthier shopping lists for better eating? List these steps in your journal, post them on a wall or refrigerator or type them out in your phone with notifications so that they’re never forgotten. Work on them daily, weekly or whatever works for you. Most importantly, find a schedule and stick with it. Remember that accomplishing any goal is all about consistency!

• Track your progress! Create a calendar to do this and set timeframes to help you be accountable of what you’re doing. Remember to always set realistic timeframes to prevent self-sabotaging yourself. For example, it’s next to impossible to lose 50 pounds in a month, so avoid overextending your expectations. Losing five to eight pounds within that timeframe is much more realistic.

• Don’t be afraid to change your plan when needed. If you find that a part of what you’re doing isn’t working, then change it! Find a way to make it work so you can keep moving toward your objective. Many times, we keep doing things that don’t work or aren’t serving us. It’s important to give yourself time to see if something will work, but don’t keep repeating what clearly isn’t helping you reach your goal. For example, if you’ve scheduled your workouts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, and you’re clearly not a morning person, then you probably won’t succeed. Find a time that works better to ensure that you’re giving yourself every opportunity to be successful.

• Find an accountability partner. This can include a workout friend, spouse, business partner or acquaintance. It should be someone who understands how much this goal means to you and will do what they can to help keep you on track.

• Create milestones in your goal. As you reach each on your journey, find a way to celebrate it. There should be several celebrations throughout the process. Sometimes reaching a goal that’s daunting, scary or hard requires you to take time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished so far. It helps to keep you moving forward.

• If you’ll need reinforcement along the way, then make sure your accountability partner, spouse or friend is aware of this. Let he or she know how hard this is going to be for you. If they support, encourage and celebrate with you, then you’ll be able to make it to the end.

• When you reach a point where you need help, ask for it! Don’t be afraid to admit that you need a slight push when things start slowing down. When feeling lost or unable to move forward, find that person who can help you get back up and re-think what it is that you’re doing wrong. There’ll come a period when you’ll need time with friends to release stress, fear or anxiety. Only then can you re-motivate yourself.

Be Open with Your Successes!

Don’t be afraid to share your successes. Click To Tweet

Don’t be afraid to share your successes. I struggle with sharing mine at times since it can feel like I’m bragging. I’ve learned that sharing my successes in the right way and with the right people is positive and productive. For example, I participate in a Business Mastermind group. Our facilitator encourages us to share our successes and we all support each other. Doing this feels great.

If you participate in Facebook groups where you work with others to build your business or participate within personal support groups, know that these are perfect outlets to not only share problems or issues, but accomplishments and victories as well. Keep in mind that you’re probably not the only one going through this issue or working toward this type of goal. When others see your victory, it might give them hope that someday they can accomplish their goals and keep them motivated to move forward.

Failure doesn’t make us weak and it doesn’t mean we failed to meet our goal. Click To Tweet

One last and very important thing to remember is that you may very well fail in your efforts. It happens to all of us. Failure doesn’t make us weak and it doesn’t mean we failed to meet our goal. It means we are human and imperfect. It’s during these times that you should be mindful of how you treat yourself. Allow yourself to have imperfect moments, and when you’re struggling, ask for help!

Helping You be Positive!

Allow yourself to have imperfect moments, and when you’re struggling, ask for help! Click To Tweet

Seeing the good things in life isn’t always easy, especially when we have so many responsibilities that can keep us down. Our licensed psychologists in Tampa want for you to know that being positive isn’t impossible! With our guidance and encouragement, you can see the positives in what you do. Contact us today to learn more about our services.