Motivate yourself with positive self-talk

Let me tell you a quick story. When I was working in theBeer industry I was intrigued by our top ten successful Barand Hotel owning customers. The majority of them, to put ittactfully, didn't seem to be particularly sophisticatedbusiness people. In other words, they didn't seem to havehad any kind of business training or acquired anyqualifications.

I was discussing with my boss one day how these people hadbecome so successful and he said - "They don't know theycan't do it. You and I Alan see the pitfalls, we know aboutbusiness and we see all the ways we could fail. These peopleonly see how they'll succeed.

As you'll gather, this was a pretty powerful message for me- these successful business owners were talking tothemselves in a much more positive way than less successfulpeople.

Your level of success in terms of your happiness, emotionalwellbeing and anything else you desire is a direct result ofhow you talk to yourself. The most important relationshipyou'll ever have is the one you have with yourself.

Listen to the self-talk that goes on in your head and askyourself - "Is what I'm saying allowing me to be confident,on top and going for it?" If so - great! "Or is it holding me back and stopping me achieve my goals?"If this is the case - STOP IT, change the program!

By talking to yourself in a positive manner, you'll start tofeel physically better. Words have an enormous power tocreate change in the chemistry of your body. Your heart rate, blood pressure, muscles, nerves andbreathing will all react to the words you say to yourself.

Take a moment to say some words to yourself such as -"Holidays, warm sunshine, sandy beaches, swimming, chilledbeer, delicious food. Are you starting to get good feelings?I hope you are. Maybe words like home, family, children orChristmas give you some good feelings. Or how about the word"sex?" I bet that could change the chemistry of your body.

So think about the things you say to yourself and make everystatement in the present tense. Don't say, for example - "I'm going to make a success ofthis business" or "I'm going to get organised," or "I'mgoing to be much more confident."

Say - "I am totally in control of my life. I am totallyconfident and positive. I'm achieving my goals. I havedetermination and drive." What you're actually doing here is re-programming yoursubconscious. If you talk to yourself in a positive way,that's what your subconscious will focus on.

Top sports people know all this stuff; they know that theyneed to talk to themselves in a positive way to besuccessful. Research has proved that the success of theworld's top golfers is determined by 20 per cent physicalability and 80 per cent mental ability.In the day-to-day tasks that we face in our life, we shouldbe no different from sports people.

If you talk to yourself in a negative way - that's what yoursubconscious will focus on. If you think illness, you'llbecome ill. If you think doom and gloom - that's what you'llget. But if you think - health happiness and success -you're already there.

Let me finish on another short story. In the city where Ilive, parking a car can be difficult. Say for example I needto visit a bookstore and I decide to take my car. I say tomyself - "I'm going to park my car outside the bookstore." If I have someone with me they'll inevitably say - "You'renuts Alan, you'll never get parked there, far better to parkseveral blocks away in a quieter area." And guess what -most of the time I park outside the bookstore. It doesn'thappen all the time but talking to yourself in a positiveway is much more likely to get you the results you want.

Put this to the test right away; for the next 7 days listento what you say to yourself and if it's negative, change itto something more positive and you'll start to feel better,look better and have much more success.