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12/10 Positive Self Talk: The Glasses that Turned Everything Upside Down and The Obesed Woman

Did you know that you talk to yourself more than anyone else talks to you?   Granted for most of you, you aren't walking down the street talking to yourself out loud like I sometimes do.  But you've constantly got a record playing in your head talking to you.  And it's sad to say, but most people have a defeated voice playing on that record in their head.  That record is saying: "I'm not smart enough.  I'm not gifted enough.  Nothing ever goes my way."  That negative self talk not only saddens us, but it limits our potential.

There was a study done with a group of college students where the college students were given special eye glasses that turned everything upside down.  At first the students had to be led to class.  They couldn't read or write and they could barely even function.  It was a total mess.  But day after day, little by little the students started getting used to seeing everything upside down.  By the end of that first week they were able to walk to class and start to function all by themselves.  The researchers were so intrigued with the reaction of the students that they decided to keep the experiment going.  After one whole month those students had totally adapted to their new found situation.  Their minds had totally compensated for their world being upside down and now they could read without a problem.  They could write, type on the computer and do their homework all while seeing everything upside down.

This is exactly what can happen to us.  If we go around with the wrong record playing in our head telling ourselves "I'm not a good person or player.  I make too many mistakes.  Nothing ever goes right for me."  Just like those college students, even though it is totally backwards and not true, our mind will adapt to that record and we'll end up living or playing at that level.

There are a lot of people today who have their opinion of themselves flipped upside down and they're living far below their potential.  But not you guys.  Not you because you have a positive self image.  You tell yourself you are a good person.  You tell yourself that good things happen to me.  People like me.  I can create miracles every day.  You see, if we just put on the right glasses when we look at ourselves not only will we see what we want to see, but you'll start becoming who you want to be.

You believe what you say about yourself more than what anybody else says about you.  There was this woman who was overweight but she decided to lose that weight and become skinny.  She lost all the weight and had surgery to remove all the excess skin.  It was incredible, she truly looked amazing.  People would come up and tell her how great she looked.  They would say how attractive she was.  But the woman was depressed.  When asked why she said that even though everyone was telling her how great she looked, she still viewed herself as that fat, unattractive lady.  With that statement she had hit the nail right on the head.  Our internal record plays louder than anyone else's voice in our heads.

It would do us all good if we would lie in bed each morning, before we get up, and tell ourselves positive things.  I tell myself everyone morning how good looking I am and how I am going to have a great day.  Now I don't know if I enjoy a lot of great days because of how good looking I am or if it's because of my attitude.  But either way I wake up each day excited to get started on all the things I get to accomplish that day.  You can do that too.  Let yourself hear how great you are.  Tell yourself how you are the best player on the field.  Tell yourself that you are here to make a positive difference.
If we all can get that good record playing in our head we wont be like those college kids with the glasses that turn everything upside down.  No way, not us.  We will instead need to wear sunglasses at night because our view of ourselves and our world is so bright.