The Power of Self-Talk – The power of self-talk is a powerful tool for negative or positive purposes. Educators, students, administrators, support staff, and professional developers use this tool. In addition, it is used with people in industries of business, agriculture, medicine, and technology. Consequently, it is used by virtually every person on the planet.

Self-talk lifts us up to be mighty goal driven professionals. It can also allow us to be complacent and accept things as “just ok.” As a result, there is one key component that changes self-talk. You, no one else.

What is Self-Talk?

It is what you might have guessed. It is when you talk to yourself. You do it when you are organizing your thoughts and expressing your thoughts. You do it out loud, in your head and even when you are in bed when you are asleep. It is completely natural and should occur to some degree no matter if you are a teacher collecting your thoughts or you are a studying to cram for that big final. Accept it. It is apart of who you are.

The Problem

Self-talk is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, there are many positives. As mentioned earlier we all do it for various reasons. Sometimes we do it to organize our thoughts, to remind ourselves of upcoming or past events. It can motivate us or demotivate us.

The biggest problem with self-talk is that we sometimes allow ourselves. to say “we are not good enough”, or say something is “ok the way it is” even though it is not acceptable to our personal or standards. If you maintain an internal or vocal monolgue that continually says you cannot do something, it will eventually become truth and you will believe it.

Benefits of Self-Talk

Self-talk can inversely have positive effects. Using language that is internal or vocal can motivate you to achieve goals big and small. “You’ve got this” is a mindset that encourages you to believe what you say. Once you believe, you are fully able to accomplish tasks regardless it is in the music classroom or during your everyday routine, you develop confidence.

Accept or Aggressively Engaging

Accept

You two options when dealing with self-talk. It is simple, you either accept what, and how you think about things or you actively engage in self-language that alters your brain chemistry.

Accepting your current scenario where you say, “I can never do this,” or worse yet, “my students can never do this,” is a form of acceptance. Saying I will do something, like a New Year’s resolution, but never engage in the actions that take place in the here and now is also a form of acceptance.

The Power of Self-Talk

Playing the blame game is also a form of acceptance. For example, blaming your students, administration, parents, money, childhood, neighbourhood and self are all forms of acceptance. I am not saying you should not accept who you are but rather you are accepting that things are “just ok.”

Aggressively Engage

Aggressive engaging in positive self-talk is not about to create violent scenarios but rather focuses on the here and now of change. In this form of self-talk, we can stop saying “we are going to do this BUT…” In this scenario excuses are made for change and often falter as a result.

Instead, create a list of what your ideal scenarios and goals are. Slowly incorporate the positive vocabulary you need to believe these goals are possible. In fact, practice when you address your students. When you see your student attitudes and/or production change you will start to believe in positive self-talk.

They say, when the average person sees a commercial they must see it at least seven times to understand the real message. Now imagine getting yourself to believe a new message. To believe this positive message there needs to be lots of consistent reinforcement. Perhaps even more if negative self-talk has taken a toll on your belief system.

Conclusion

This post is more about believing in your ability to use self-talk to shape your belief system. Consistent positive vocabulary usage in the time you organize your thoughts or make judgment calls can gradually change your value system for the better. In conclusion, I hope you can take a moment to take a look at your big picture. Are you happy with your life, or job? Do you need change? If so, challenge yourself and see if you can use positive self-talk to reorganize your brain chemistry.