Self Talk, Self Coaching

Do you believe there is such a thing as self coaching?  Remember Saturday Night Live’s character Fernando Lamas? He used to say it is better to feel good than to look good.  He then proceeded to stand in front of a mirror and say, “You look marvelous.”  Hilarious right?  It really was funny and we thought he was crazy, but now that I look back on that skit years later I realize he wasn’t all that crazy.  There was some truth to what Fernando Lamas was saying.

Wear Your Game Face 

Some days like today it maybe all that we can do.  Maybe you listened to the news today and heard the stories I heard.  The story of a father that went to work and left his 10 month old in the car or maybe the one about a friend of yours that has breast cancer for the second time and it maybe terminal this go around.  Whatever the news or story it affects the way we feel about our day.  Let’s face it, Monday are just hard.  I had a really great weekend so I did not want to get up this morning.  So what does it mean to me, mentally when I get out of my car, look at the door into work and say to myself, “Put your game face on.”  Can just uttering some words and placing a not so genuine smile change the way I feel?  Coaches have said it for years!

 Self Talk 

Psychology Today calls it Self Talk. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/self-talk You may do it all the time, but if you don’t or have never tried it, give it a try.  You have an inner voice that talks to you.  Often we are totally unconscious of the conversations that go on in our head.  The can be self deprecating, telling us without even knowing it that our day is going to be lousy.  That the people you work with are going to be just awful. When the truth is no one really knows what today holds for them.  Yet we often let our inner thoughts affect our feelings.  I think if I listen too often to my inner talk I will let my day begin to go sideways before it has even started. So what can I do?

 Change Your Inner Talk

You remember being a kid and someone saying to you before you bat, or talk a test or sing a solo, “You can do this.”  Then you walked out there knowing that someone believed enough in you to tell you that phrase.  Well, why not tell yourself those same types of things?  You are in control of your thoughts.  Your thoughts are not in control of you.  When I wake up with a sour attitude or even when my children would wake up surly and will a terrible attitude I often remind them and me,  “I can change this.”  I can change the way I FEEL about this day.  I do not have to fall into the temptation of a sorry attitude.  There is a reason we are told to think on those things that are lovely.