ProdPod: Episode 47 -- Conquering Negative Self-Speak for Greater Productivity

Negative self-speak eats away at productivity and no one is immune from it at high stress times in our lives. And, while you may have positive self-esteem, you may still have negative self-speak creeping into your daily life. In this episode, I give you a three-pronged approach to eliminating self-speak from your productive life.

Daily affirmations:

1. First, you need to identify what you think are your strengths and weaknesses. You can probably name quickly off the top of your head how you're a best asset to your family, your friend network and at the office in your job duties or beyond. Now, where do you feel like you could improve? Write down a list of "I" statements of your strengths. Then, do the same with your weaknesses but write them down in the inverse. For example, if I felt my weakness was in follow-through with my coworkers' requests, I would write something like, "My coworkers can depend on me to follow-through with their requests in a timely manner." Now, merge the two lists and read them aloud to yourself (perhaps in a mirror if that helps) every morning. This will build the brain pathways to unlocking new strengths and solutions.
2. Next, write down every negative word you say in the course of a week as you recognize them and pay attention to change the language whenever you hear yourself saying something negative about yourself.

Negative Self-Speak Lexicon:

3. Finally, enlist your friends, family and coworkers with scripts encouragingly worded to alert you of negative self-speak when you don't notice it. With each alert, remember to restate your self-speak positively. This may even help your friends, family and coworkers resolves some of their own negative self-speak!

With daily affirmations, knowing your negative self-speak lexicon and the help of your friends, family and coworkers, you'll be on your way to conquering your negative self-speak for good!