Dear Readers,
Yesterday I had occasion to talk to several people in my capacity as coach and it was not until much later in the day that I realized that what I had said had made a difference and helped motivate someone to do something that they were scared or nervous about doing.
In case you are wondering, I am being vague to protect their privacy.
I am bringing this up because over and over again, I hear people around me say things like.. ” I am not creative but.. ” or “I am not really organized but..” basically painting themselves with labels like “can’t” or “I am not” and the truth is.. what you say about yourself tends to stick.. Take me for instance, for YEARS, I said.. ” I am not good at math” and I even made jokes that were clever and verbose to cover my embarrassment…. e.g. “I have a fractious relationship with numbers”
Then one day I realized that it didn’t serve me to say it because it’s not true and saying it like that over and over again further cements the notion. To be brutally honest, my husband is better at them, and I have skill with numbers despite telling myself for most of my life I was bad at them.
I am not saying you can just “tell yourself” you are good at something till you believe it and that is enough.. No. You need to take action as well.
In reality, I am really good with numbers. “I have worked hard to become so.” Every time I calculated how much was left for us to pay on debt (and I mean down to the penny) — since according to Jeremy, we paid off 37,000.00 but according to me, it was 36,945.91 to be precise that we paid off to get debt-free.
I used to say, “I am not creative”. Yesterday, a good friend of mine, Dr. Keya Howard in fact, said, It’s a good thing you are so creative (just off-hand) and I didn’t even blink an eye while agreeing with her because it’s true, I am creative.
I spent a lot of time telling myself otherwise, until my Mom, and several other friends and family of choice members pointed it out to me, here and there and I began to realize it’s true, I am creative.
But back to you dear reader, what do you regularly say about yourself that isn’t true?
Here are some examples, I heard recently
“I’m not creative, I leave that to other people”
“I am not organized, so I am scared that this will all fall apart”
“I am not a runner”
“I can’t write a book, who would read it?”
We have the potential to be our #1 fan or our absolute worst critic, most of us choose the latter, but why not the former?
I challenge you to choose your words carefully, especially when talking about yourself.
What would your life look like if you chose to hold up the pom poms for yourself and shouted YAY ME!
Think About It…..
Haston Helping Hands 