What does Bob the Builder know about success? Try this slight shift in your self-talk which makes a difference!
When I first started reading about self-development (roughly 1992) I read books that told me the power of affirmations and positive self-talk.
“I can do it,” or “I’m special,” or [insert positive statement] were some of the things we’re told to say to ourselves.
In comparison to negative self-talk, we can see it’s a better alternative to:
“I can’t do this,” or “I’m no good at presenting,” or [insert negative statement]
The antidote to negative statements if they’re accurate is developing competence or changing our expectations of ourselves which could be unrealistic (I’ll never play soccer for Real Madrid)
The shift up from positive affirmations that is more effective according to research carried out by Ibrahim Senators, Delores Albarracín and Kenji Nogurchi discovered the power of “interrogative self talk” or asking questions of ourselves e.g. “Can we fix it?”
On average it boosted performance by 50%!!
“Those who approached a task with Bob the Builder style questioning self-talk outperformed those who employed the most conventional juice-myself-up declarative self-talk.”
Test this out for yourself. Ask more questions of yourself, build competence and get out and get moving.
If you want to learn about why this works, get in touch.
