How Language Makes You Stuck

How Language Makes You Stuck!

This past weekend I was having a BIG come apart and feeling extremely sorry for myself. All I could think about was what I wasn’t able to achieve in my life and business because of my circumstances.  I’m sure you have never done that?? But just in case you have, I spent some time reflecting on my current mindset so I could figure out specifically what was going on.  Finally, I realized my negative outlook was the result of my language and self-talk. I was using seemingly innocent words to sabotage myself.

1.     The FIRST thing I noticed was that I was using, “I am”.  For example…“I am helpless.” or “I am angry.” Using  “I am” is like placing an equal sign between you and the emotion - you equal whatever emotion you are experiencing. In my case, I equaled helpless and anger.  But in reality I wasn’t anger or helpless.  I decided to make a major mind shift and now when I am feeling helpless or feeling any emotion - I instead replace it with, “I am choosing to hold onto anger instead of I am angry”.  That left me with the choice to continue or to stop holding onto whatever emotion I was experiencing.  This reframe allowed me to let go of an emotion at will, instead of claiming it as a constant state of mind.

2.     The SECOND thing I was using were “why” questions.  For example, “Why did this happen to me?” and “Why can’t I be stronger?” Other questions I have heard past clients ask are, “Why can’t I lose weight?”, “Why can’t I motivate myself?” and  “Why can’t I make more money?” All of these statements are problem focused, without an answer or solution - keeping us stuck in the overriding question of  “why”.  For example, the statement, “Why can’t I lose weight.” – makes the mind then think – hummm I can’t lose weight because…and we then answer our own question through our current mindset – and if we aren’t in a great place we may respond with….because I can’t achieve anything in life – because I am a loser – and the negative answers will keep coming up and not help us lose weight because the self-talk is not solution based. Try using the word HOW instead.    Ask yourself…”HOW can I lose weight?” “HOW can I be stronger?” “HOW can I not focus on my circumstances?”  HOW, focuses on solutions, things you can do about the statement. Solutions that will put you into motion.

The moral of the story – reframe your self-talk and you will be able to break free of what’s holding you back and move into an action based, positive mindset.  A clearer vision and focus will give you no choice but to have your best year ever in 2017! The Year of the SKY…