Today Is the Day by Pence James & Cornelius Bil

Author:Pence, James & Cornelius, Bil [Pence, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2014-01-06T16:00:00+00:00

Change Your Self-Talk

Similar to visualization is self-talk. Self-talk is what we tell ourselves about ourselves. Unfortunately, most of that talk is negative. According to behavioral psychologist and author Dr. Shad Helmstetter, by the time the average person turns eighteen, he has been told no or what he can’t do about 148,000 times. 2 Let’s assume your parents were outstanding and encouraging souls. In that case, you were told about your limits and what you couldn’t do only 100,000 times by the time you became an adult. This doesn’t mean your parents were evil. In their efforts to protect you and keep you from being hurt, they told you no repeatedly.

Here’s the problem with this. Repetition is a convincing argument. If we are told (or tell ourselves) something often enough, we believe it. And unfortunately, most of us are much better at telling ourselves what we can’t do than affirming what we can do. In fact, behavioral researchers tell us that 77 percent of what we think or say to ourselves is negative, counterproductive, and works against us. 3 It’s time to change that. The good thing about self-talk is it can work both ways. Although negative self-talk is damaging, positive self-talk is empowering.

In my book I Dare You to Change , I tell the story of Gideon from Judges 6. When God appeared to Gideon, he addressed him as a “mighty warrior” (Judg. 6:12). But at that moment, Gideon was cowering in a winepress (generally a low-lying area) and hiding from Israel’s enemies, the Midianites. Gideon was frozen, fearing for his life. But God infused confidence into him, not by addressing him as he was but by describing what he would become—a mighty and courageous warrior. Gideon needed to hear what God thought of him because he did not believe in himself. 4

One word from God can change how you feel about yourself. If you are doubtful of your ability, you may want to read what God has to say about you. Just a quick look through the Bible shows that God thinks a lot of you.

“The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom” (Deut. 28:13).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.