I watched with some amusement the other day as a rather disheveled looking man walked down the sidewalk embroiled in a conversation…with him self. It appeared he was asking questions of someone (who was not there) and then answering them. Who knows what was going on in his head?
This little scene caused me to think about how often I talk to myself as well; and what I have to say. We all do it. Maybe not openly as this man did, but we all tell ourselves things every day and what we say plays a big part in how our world forms around us. The things we tell ourselves form our beliefs. Our beliefs, in turn, affect our actions; attracting people and things to us that match up with our beliefs. In short, we tend to get what we think about.
Recently, a manager was telling me about his problems hiring good people. I knew first hand that he had some serious issues. As we talked he went on and on about how there just were no good employees in his town. “Nobody wants to work”, he went on to say, “They just want their check. They are all lazy with bad attitudes”. And on went the diatribe for 15 minutes…….blah, blah, blah.
When we arrived at his business, he continued to gripe about his lousy staff…..in front of some of them. Is it any wonder that those employees who heard him would live down to his expectations? This manager’s problem was not the local labor pool; his problem was his poor expectations, brought on by his poor beliefs, brought on by his negative self talk. He was literally attracting the wrong kind of people.
Not happy with circumstances in your life? Maybe it is time to examine your own belief system and figure out what you are doing to attract the wrong things. Change your self-talk and you will change your circumstances.
What do you say when you are talking to yourself?
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