Daily Practices for Positive Self-Talk

2025-03-04 ~ adminlife

We all have habits we follow every day — brushing our teeth, eating meals, drinking water and even checking our phones. But what about our mental habits? Among the most important yet overlooked habits is self-talk — the inner dialogue that shapes how we think, feel and act.

Self-talk can be a powerful force for motivation and confidence, or it can become a source of self-doubt and negativity. When your inner voice is positive, it encourages you to take action, pursue goals and believe in yourself. But when it turns critical, it can hold you back, fuel anxiety and diminish your sense of self-worth.

Before you can start to plan your success goals, there are many things that you need to understand before you can be sure that the goals you set are really the ones you want.

One of those things is to determine if there are any Limiting Beliefs that can stop you from actually achieving those goals.

I have a self-study Limiting Belief Program that you can go through to determine what your Limiting Beliefs are and how you can remove them.

You can read more and register for the program at Limiting Beliefs Program on my Confidence and Life Coaching website.

Start your journey on your path to success by identifying and removing your Limiting Beliefs so that you make the journey a lot easier.

You can download a free PDF containing five articles on Limiting Beliefs and how to overcome them and achieve things in your career and personal life.

The PDF can be downloaded here (and you don’t have to register or provide an email address) Limiting Beliefs Download

Download the file and go over the other material that you can find on the Confidence and Life Coaching website.

If you are ready to move even further into the process of Identifying and removing and replacing your Limiting Beliefs, you should consider my short Limiting Belief’s Coaching Program.

Since self-talk influences every aspect of life, developing a habit of positive inner dialogue is essential. The good news? You can train your mind to replace negativity with encouragement. Here are five daily practices that will help you cultivate a more positive and empowering inner voice.

1. Identify and Manage Your Triggers

Negative self-talk often follows specific triggers — situations, people or environments that make you doubt yourself. To maintain a positive inner dialogue, start by recognizing what sets off your negative thoughts.

Ask yourself:

Are there certain people who make me feel insecure?
Do I experience more negative self-talk in stressful situations?
Are there past experiences that still influence my thinking?

Once you identify your triggers, take proactive steps to manage them. For example, if a particular coworker constantly criticizes you, practice setting boundaries or reminding yourself of your strengths before interacting with them. If certain environments make you feel anxious, prepare affirmations in advance to counteract negative thoughts.

By being mindful of your triggers, you can take control of your self-talk instead of letting it control you.

2. Check In With Yourself Throughout the Day

Just like you might check your emails or phone notifications, take time to check in with your thoughts. A simple mental inventory can help you catch negative self-talk before it spirals out of control.

Try these quick check-ins:

Morning Mindset: Start the day by setting a positive intention. Ask yourself, What’s one thing I’m excited about today?
Midday Reset: Around lunchtime, reflect on how you’ve been talking to yourself. If negative thoughts have crept in, replace them with affirmations.
Evening Reflection: Before bed, review your day. Focus on accomplishments rather than what went wrong. Acknowledge progress, no matter how small.

The more you monitor your inner dialogue, the easier it becomes to redirect it toward positivity.

3. Use Humour to Break Negative Thought Patterns

It’s hard to take yourself too seriously when you’re laughing. Humour is a powerful tool for shifting your mindset and stopping negative self-talk in its tracks.

Next time you catch yourself thinking, I always mess things up, try imagining a cartoon version of your inner critic panicking over nothing. Or exaggerate the thought to the point of absurdity: Yes, because spilling coffee means I’m a total failure at life.

This technique helps you see the ridiculousness of self-criticism and reminds you not to let small setbacks define you. Laughter lightens your perspective, making it easier to let go of negativity.

4. Surround Yourself With Positivity

The people and environments you engage with daily have a significant impact on your self-talk. When you spend time around positive, uplifting individuals, their optimism becomes contagious. On the other hand, constantly being around negativity can reinforce self-doubt.

To boost your inner dialogue, consider:

Choosing Supportive Friends: Surround yourself with people who encourage and uplift you.
Limiting Exposure to Negativity: Reduce time with those who constantly complain or bring you down.
Creating a Positive Environment: Fill your space with uplifting quotes, music or books that inspire confidence.

Energy is contagious — make sure the energy around you supports your personal growth.

5. Reinforce Positivity With Daily Affirmations

Affirmations are short, powerful statements that help rewire your brain for positive thinking. When repeated consistently, they become ingrained in your subconscious, helping to counteract self-doubt.

Here’s how to make affirmations work for you:

Be Specific: Instead of “I am confident,” say, “I have the skills and knowledge to succeed.”
Make Them Present-Tense: Say “I am capable” rather than “I will be capable.”
Place Them Where You’ll See Them: Write affirmations on sticky notes and place them on mirrors, your desk or your phone screen.
Repeat Them Daily: The more you say them, the more natural they become.

Some powerful affirmations to try:

I am worthy of success and happiness.
I am resilient and handle challenges with ease.
I believe in my abilities and trust my decisions.

By reinforcing positive beliefs, affirmations help reshape the way you see yourself and your potential.

Make Positive Self-Talk a Daily Habit

Building a habit of positive self-talk takes time and effort, but the rewards are life-changing. When you commit to managing your triggers, checking in with your thoughts, using humour, surrounding yourself with positive influences and practising affirmations, you create a mindset that fuels confidence and success.

Like any habit, positive self-talk becomes easier the more you practice it. Start small, be patient with yourself and remember — your inner voice should be your biggest supporter, not your harshest critic.

Make today the day you take control of your self-talk, and watch how your confidence and happiness grow.

To talk about any aspect of success or working with a Life Coach to help you to achieve success, you can book a 30-minute call by clicking on the blue button below.

Don’t try to do all of this by yourself, ask and receive the guidance that can get you moving towards your own success.

Working together can help you overcome personal and professional barriers, ensuring you reach your highest potential.

Nothing happens until action is taken.

To your success.

Michael

P.S if you want to find out more about my programs just check out the site Confidence and Life Coaching

P.P.S. If you enjoy reading these articles on my blog, I have more books that have more of this type of information that you can find out more about at Books to Read. You can buy these ebooks at many on-line book stores. The links to the bookstores are at the link above.

Happy Read an Ebook Week

To help you find a book to celebrate, you can find my entire collection at a promotional price at @Smashwords from March 2 – March 8.

Find my books and many more at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Michael_W

P.P.P.S. You can download a free PDF containing five articles on Limiting Beliefs and how to overcome them and achieve things in your career and personal life.

The PDF can be downloaded here (and you don’t have to register or provide an email address) Limiting Beliefs Download

Download the file and go over the other material that you can find on the Confidence and Life Coaching website.

P.P.P.P.S. If you are ready to move even further into the process of Identifying and removing and replacing your Limiting Beliefs, you should consider my short Limiting Belief’s Coaching Program.

Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash

Self-talk and success in life

2024-05-30 ~ adminlife

We all have an inner voice that constantly narrates our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. This inner voice, also known as self-talk, plays a crucial role in shaping our perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours. While positive self-talk can boost our confidence, motivation, and resilience, negative self-talk can hinder our success and hold us back from reaching our full potential.

There is something common between self-sabotaging your own life and losing your motivation and confidence, your self-talk.

To help you understand this connection and to help put an end to your negative self-talk, I have put together a short program that can change your negative self-talk in to positive, empowering self-talk.

You can find out more and register at Self-talk

This is a short-4-week program working with me one-on-one to get you moving forward to becoming more successful.

Check out the program description and register today.

In both personal and professional life, self-talk can either be a powerful ally or a formidable adversary. Those who engage in positive self-talk tend to be more successful, happier, and healthier than those who constantly criticize and doubt themselves. Positive self-talk can help you overcome challenges, stay focused on your goals, and maintain a positive attitude in the face of adversity. On the other hand, negative self-talk can erode your self-esteem, limit your growth, and prevent you from taking risks and pursuing opportunities.

As a life coach, I have seen firsthand how self-talk can make or break a person’s success. Those who have mastered the art of positive self-talk are able to navigate life’s ups and downs with grace and resilience, while those who harbour negative self-talk tendencies often find themselves stuck in a cycle of self-doubt, fear, and self-sabotage.

The good news is that you have the power to change your self-talk patterns and take control of your inner dialogue. One simple method that you can use to improve your self-talk is by practising self-affirmations. Self-affirmations are positive statements that you repeat to yourself regularly to reprogram your subconscious mind and replace negative beliefs with positive ones.

To start practising self-affirmations, begin by identifying the negative beliefs or thoughts that are holding you back. These may be beliefs like “I’m not good enough,” “I’ll never succeed,” or “I’m not deserving of happiness.” Once you have identified these negative beliefs, work on creating positive affirmations that challenge and replace them.

For example, if you struggle with feelings of inadequacy, you can create a positive affirmation like “I am capable, competent, and deserving of success.” Repeat this affirmation to yourself every day, preferably in front of a mirror, until it becomes ingrained in your subconscious mind.

It’s important to make your affirmations specific, positive, and in the present tense. Instead of saying “I will be successful,” say “I am successful.” This helps to reinforce positive beliefs and behaviours in the present moment, rather than in some distant future.

In addition to practising self-affirmations, another way to improve your self-talk is by practising self-compassion. Treat yourself with the same kindness and understanding that you would offer to a friend in need. Instead of berating yourself for your mistakes, offer yourself words of encouragement and support. Remember that nobody is perfect, and it’s okay to make mistakes and learn from them.

Finally, surround yourself with positive influences and affirmations. Fill your environment with motivational quotes, uplifting music, and supportive people who believe in you and your potential. This will help to reinforce positive self-talk and create a supportive and empowering environment for your personal and professional growth.

In conclusion, self-talk can be a powerful force in shaping your success and happiness in life. By practising self-affirmations, self-compassion, and surrounding yourself with positive influences, you can improve your self-talk and cultivate a mindset of positivity, resilience, and self-belief. Remember, the way you talk to yourself matters – so choose your words wisely and watch how they can transform your life for the better.

To talk about any aspect of success or working with a Life Coach to help you to achieve success, you can book a 45-minute call by clicking on the blue button below.Don’t try to do all of this by yourself, ask and receive the guidance that can get you moving towards your own success.

Nothing happens until action is taken.

To your success.

Michael

P.S Don’t forget to register for the short Self-talk Program at Self-talk

If you have an Amazon Kindle account, there are different books at Amazon – Michael W (author)

Photo by Simon HUMLER on Unsplash

The Reason Why You Fail

2023-03-31 ~ adminlife

You may shake your head and disagree but the reason is: you don’t want to succeed.

You are saying of course you want to succeed and I have lost my mind. It seems to be crazy to say that you fail to achieve something because you don’t want to succeed.

Your self-talk and limiting beliefs are the two main things that can hold you back.

You can try to fix these by yourself or you can work with a Life Coach.

This short video talks to these points and offers you a solution.

https://vimeo.com/800646997

You can contact me to book the call mentioned in the video at

https://calendly.com/michael-coach/strategy-session

If you want to find out more about the Self-talk Program, and register before talking tome, you can do so at the website Self-talk Program

It actually isn’t that crazy.

You are in the present moment, the here and now. When looked at objectively, your life is nothing more than a continuous series of present moments. You can’t change your past and you are preparing for the eventual reality you will create.

Right now, you are not concerned about what you want to achieve in the future. Your psyche understands that it can only impact the here and now.

Your psyche looks at what is going on now around you. It sees that you are breathing and existing so it is happy. Do you know what makes your psyche unhappy?

Trying to change what is happening now.

It knows that you are alive and well so why bother changing anything? This could make things bad for you. When you try to take actions that you are not used to doing, such as doing something to achieve a big goal, you get push-back from your subconscious.

Your survival instinct is stopping you from succeeding.

You can defeat this natural resistance to change.

You should be applauding yourself. Most people are happy to live their current lives. For them good enough is good enough, and they don’t want to even try to make their lives better.

You aren’t one of them. You want to kick failure out to the curb and achieve success.

You can do this because you can change your mindset through conscious self-talk.

Talk to your subconscious and tell yourself that the change you want to make is good. This trains your subconscious to lead itself to conscious actions for success.

In front of a mirror, tell yourself out loud what your big goal is. Talk about the new amazing reality. Tell it why you want to make this change. What will this positive result replace in your life?

Tell yourself all of these things in the morning and before you go to bed. Write them all down and read them over to yourself several times each day.

To beat your natural resistance to change, you need to give a detailed image to your subconscious on how these changes will improve your life.

Several times every day engage in this self-talk. You have to continuously convince your subconscious that you are making changes to create a new better life.

To work together to help you get moving in the right direction in your life, click on the blue button below to book a 45-minute, no obligation “Get to know you” call.

Going alone on creating a better life is difficult. Find out how working with a Life Coach can make the journey to success and a better life easier.

Book the call now.

To your success

Michael

P.S You can subscribe to my new biweekly newsletter: “Helping You to Live a Better Life” by visiting and registering at Newsletter.

Photo by Ifrah Akhter on Unsplash

Amazing Self-talk

2022-08-03 ~ adminlife

Playing in your head constantly and has a dynamic impact is your self-talk. These conversations that you have determine your actions and your emotions. There are different types of self-talk and each has an advantage once you learn how to use them.

Self-talk – General

Raise awareness about your self-talk. You may not even be aware of what you are saying to yourself as self-talk is so natural. You first must become conscious of the commentary about your life that you are hearing in your mind.

Disrupt your old patterns. You can make change using self-talk. If you have a fear of numbers from a past experience, you can take a course on-line and practice when you talk to yourself while comparing prices when you go shopping.

If you would like to listen to these types of articles, you can visit my podcasts at

These are short, usually under 5 minutes but they can enable you to listen to confidence and motivation advice and tips while driving or relaxing.

Take action. When you are talking to yourself, include a call to action that focuses on goals that challenge you but that you can attain.

Do a reality check. What is really happening around you and how does your self-talk measure up? There is a big difference between making a small mistake and being a failure.

Talk with others. Feedback from others is valuable to obtain. What do your coworkers or your partner say about you and how does that compare to your own impression about yourself?

Consistency. Before a message is accepted, it must often be heard many times. With practice, your inner dialogue will become wiser.

Be friends with yourself. Sometimes we speak harsher to ourselves that to other people. You need to talk to yourself like you would to a friend. You have to be truthful and supportive to yourself.

Self-talk – Motivational

Build yourself up. It is in situations that require endurance and confidence where motivational self-talk works best. You can have confidence in your worth and your abilities with a good pep talk.

What are your hot buttons? Choose the words that will invigorate you. It could mean that you call yourself a superhero or just remind yourself how awesome you are.

Brevity. Short phrases and single words are the best to keep you staying on track. These will help you to better focus on your assets instead of being distracted by any nagging doubt.

Self-talk – Instructional

Get an early start. Instructional self-talk is ideal when you start a new project. Being your own coach during the beginning stages is very important.

Precision. Break your tasks down into specific steps. For public speaking, it may be to make eye contact, use a pace that is appropriate and make sure that you sound enthusiastic during your speech.

Visualize. See yourself achieving the results you want at the completion of the task.

Self-talk – Reassuring

Acknowledge your feelings. You can manage tense moments with comfort and skill when you use soothing self-talk. Accept your emotions instead of always trying to suppress them. Even if you are feeling afraid, you can act courageously.

Create some distance. To perform better under stress, it has been found that if you substitute the word “you” for “I” and call yourself by name it helps a great deal. When you are feeling the pressure, this can help to restore objectivity.

Be positive. Your challenges won’t disappear when you use self-talk but you will be able to respond more constructively. Don’t criticize a past misstep, but learn and concentrate on doing better the next time.

Channel your self-talk to get yourself moving in a positive direction. Take the thoughts that are constantly running through your head and turn them into an encouraging stream. When you do this, you will reduce your stress as well as enhance your self-confidence. This will enable you to enjoy more success in your life.

To work together to help you get moving in the right direction in your life, click on the blue button below to book a 15-minute, no obligation “Get to know you” call.

Going alone on creating a better life is difficult. Find out how working with a Life Coach to remove your pain points, can make the journey to success and a better life easier.

Book the call now.

To your success

Michael

P.S. you know that living a life that is in balance is important. When you can balance your work, family, health, relationships, fitness and money, you feel better and can achieve your goals. You have the support of your family and friends which makes life worth living.

Check out my programs at Confidence and Life Coaching by clicking on the logo below:

Photo by neida zarate on Unsplash

Amazing Self-talk in 5 Minutes

2022-06-15 ~ adminlife

The impact of the self-talk that is constantly going on inside your head is dramatic. Your actions and emotions are determined by the conversations you have with yourself. There are different types of self-talk.

General Self-talk

Raise your awareness. You have been talking to yourself for many years that your self-talk has become so natural that you may not really understand what you are saying. You must become aware of what you are saying about your life.

If you would like to listen to these types of articles, you can visit my podcasts at

These are short, usually under 5 minutes but they can enable you to listen to confidence and motivation advice and tips while driving or relaxing.

Pattern disruption. A tool for making life changes is self-talk. Your fear of numbers may have been caused by receiving a bad grade in a math class and has been reinforced. Now you can take many online courses to help you in any type of math.

Take some action. When you are giving yourself your internal speeches, include a call to action. You should focus on attainable goals.

Do a reality check. Check to see if your self-talk is actually a reflection of what is actually going on around you. The difference between being a failure in the kitchen and just burning one slice of toast is huge.

Talk to others. It is valuable to get feedback from others. What do you colleagues and your partner say about you and ate your impressions the same?

Consistency. Before you accept a message, you usually have to hear it many times. With practice, your self-talk will get wiser.

Be your own friend. You don’t speak as harshly to your friends, or others, than you do to yourself. Talk to yourself as you would talk to a close friend. You should be truthful and supportive to yourself.

Motivation Self-talk

Strengthen yourself. In situations were you need endurance and confidence, motivational self-talk works best. You can increase your confidence and belief in your worth and your abilities with a good pep talk.

Identify your hot buttons. What words invigorate you? Call yourself a superhero and remind yourself how awesome you are.

Keep it short. You stay on track easier when you use single words or short phrases. You won’t be distracted by any doubts and you will be better able to focus on your assets.

Instructional Self-talk

Begin early. A great opportunity for instructional self-talk is at the start of a new project. During the important starting phase is a good time to coach yourself.

Be specific and precise. Break down your tasks into specific parts. For public speaking, you could use: make eye contact, get your pacing correct and be enthusiastic.

See your success. See yourself achieving the results you want.

Reassuring Self-talk

Acknowledging your feelings. You can manage your tense moments and have more comfort by having a soothing self-talk. Even if you feel afraid, you will have the best results if you accept your emotions.

Create some distance. People will perform better under stress if they call themselves by their name or replacing the word you instead of using the word I. When you are under pressure this is one way to restore objectivity.

Focus on the positive. Your life challenges won’t disappear just by using self-talk, but you can respond in a more constructive manner. Concentrate on doing better in the future instead of replaying and criticizing yourself for any past mistake.

Start moving yourself in a positive direction with your self-talk. Learn what the thoughts that are going through your head are saying, and if they are negative, change them into a stream of encouragement. You will enjoy more success in your life and reduce stress, and enhance your self-confidence with the right self-talk.

To work together to help you get moving in the right direction in your life, click on the blue button below to book a 15-minute, no obligation “Get to know you” call.

Going alone on creating a better life is difficult. Find out how working with a Life Coach to remove your pain points, can make the journey to success and a better life easier.

Book the call now.

To your success

Michael

Check out my programs at Confidence and Life Coaching by clicking on the logo below:

Photo by Alysha Rosly on Unsplash