Have a Talk with Yourself….about YOURSELF
You never know where it might lead! Can’t get around to getting on the treadmill? Can’t focus on completing tasks at work? Having trouble sleeping or taking on new challenges?
Here are the top 10 reasons to have a chat with yourself to get back on track
- YOU CAN DO IT ANYWHERE AND ANYTIME
It doesn’t have to be romantic or planned. You can literally talk with yourself anywhere or anytime, whether its beside the ocean at your favorite resort, while you’re hiding from your boss at work in the file room, or even in the bathroom while you’re — doing bathroom stuff. Just do it!
2. NO ONE NEEDS TO KNOW
Because you can keep your talk and thoughts to yourself, no one else needs to know what went down in the conversation you had with yourself, and honestly, it’s no one else’s business
3. YOU CAN TALK TO YOURSELF ABOUT WHATEVER YOU WANT
Seriously, you can ponder life, question Donald Trump’s comb-over, think about your finances, plan a vacation, or decide to make an appointment to get that weird spot on your butt checked out. Just take the time to talk about anything that you need to get sorted out, figured out or checked out.
4. THERE’S NO TIME LIMIT
You can take as much time as you need to have conversations with yourself. Ask your spouse to give you some breathing time and just tune out. Kids trying to get your attention? Take a minute to write down where you left off in the “talk” and carry on with it once you have tended to their needs. There’s always time to sit back, and chat with yourself, and you can always go back after a break, and carry on. Who knows? Maybe your focus will change and you can have a whole new talk
5. ONLY YOU ARE ACCOUNTABLE
The other day I was watching a movie, which I truly didn’t have time for, but I didn’t feel ready to tackle the day quite yet and it just felt like a movie kind of Sunday morning. After the movie was over, I felt guilt! Guilt for what? For taking time to shut off the world off and cry over a movie dog (Marley) and take time for myself? So, I shook off the guilt, had a good chat with myself, and have since then rearranged my life craziness, so that NOW I can watch two hours worth of TV without guilt. I have changed my focus and my schedule and now, even though I get out of bed at 5 am to accomplish workouts, work, writing and spending time with my partner, I am the only one held accountable and I am happy I made the change.
6. YOU DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN TO ANYONE’S ADVICE
Except your own, that is. But, if you live with, or work with people who just LOVE to offer you advice, if you are off alone somewhere, having that talk with yourself, no one can interrupt and offer you advice! They don’t even know what you’re talking about, so there’s no “you know what you should do’s”, and no, “let me give you a piece of advice’s” Just you, alone with your thoughts and your plots.
7. THERE’S NO AGENDA
Have you ever gone into a huge meeting, or even a small group discussion at work, and the dreaded “agenda” comes up on the big projection screen, or on a piece of paper that is the “handout” for the members of the meeting? When you talk with yourself, there doesn’t have to be any plan, or agenda, or purpose. You don’t even need to accomplish anything in particular. You could literally sit down or be out walking, or running, or hiding, and have a train of thought that becomes derailed and your mind wanders off to something completely unrelated. That’s okay. When we have chats with ourselves, about ourselves, there’s no need to stay “on topic”. Also you don’t have the coworker seated beside you whispering annoyingly about the topics that the agenda covers.
8. IT CAN HELP YOU FOCUS
Success is achieved, typically, by your ability to focus on, and complete tasks. Who doesn’t get a sense of self worth and satisfaction by completing a daunting task? You can literally talk yourself into taking on any new challenges! For me, it was to make working out and writing a priority, and staying on task. If this doesn’t work, I will sit down with myself again, reevaluate what I have been distracted by to keep me off task, and talk myself into getting back on track. You could talk yourself into saving money, working less hours, going on that trip you have always wanted to take, or sky diving. Your thoughts are yours, the conversation is yours and yours alone, and the mind is a powerful tool that can push you to challenge yourself and finish those bucket list items.
9. IF YOU SCREW UP FROM A TALK YOU HAD WITH YOURSELF, NO ONE WILL FIND OUT AND YOU CAN MOVE FORWARD BY TRYING AGAIN.
Lets be realistic. We are all human, and we can talk ourselves into doing some pretty crazy things and making some pretty awful choices. No one needs to know what you were talking yourself into, so they don’t know the reasoning or what lead you to do “the thing”. For example, you see an ex out with some new girl, and you had a chat with yourself, and talked yourself into texting him for a hook up, or just to go “for coffee”. We all know that this is probably a bad idea, (they are exes for a reason). No one knows that you actually took the time to yourself, talked yourself into contacting the ex and making your move. You keep it to yourself, let them assume it was a “freak accident” and you accidentally “bumped into him” and you move on. They don’t need to know any circumstances behind the error. And you learn for the next chat you have with yourself. Ixnay on the ex!
And finally…
10. YOU CAN ALWAYS TRUST YOURSELF
Even if you argue with yourself, during your “self talk”, you will always win! There is no one else in the world that you can trust more than yourself. You know you, better than anyone. You can take the time to write down your thoughts, your mind set, goals, challenges, whatever you wish, and keep them to yourself. There’s no judgement and chances are you won’t steer yourself wrong, and even if you do, refer to number 9.
We all need to get back on track, occasionally, and it may seem easy to ask loved ones or friends, or psychologists for advice or help, but in the end, we all know ourselves better than anyone. Even if someone is trying to get into your brain, they will never see the “real” you. They don’t know everything that goes through your brain throughout the day, and they don’t know where you came from or where you’re going. All they know is what you can express in words, and that is a pretty small picture with very little detail.
I cannot stress enough how important it is, just to be alone, take some time to breath, shut out the noise and get to know who you are and what you want/need to do to make your life happy. You are amazing and you can make amazing things happen if you just take the time to talk to yourself and take on the challenge! It doesn’t need to be a serious in depth lecture to yourself. Remember to be kind, don’t be hard on yourself and don’t judge. We are all human. Age doesn’t matter, race doesn’t matter and no one else matters.Self guidance and self talk will increase your chances of success, in whatever you do, especially if you just believe, and always have trust in YOU.
