Negative Self-talk: Are you an expert?

Malcolm Gladwell hypothesized that it took 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. According to Gladwell, a person must practice the right techniques over a long period of time to achieve this. While this hypothesis may have been debunked and debated, I think there’s value in striving toward practicing proper techniques.

When it comes to self-talk, like it or not, we spend a lot of times in our heads. There’s power in language. Proverbs reminds us that both death and life come from the tongue. That’s true two ways. We can build up or destroy others with our words, and we can build up and our destroy ourselves. We can use that time to pump ourselves with positivity and build ourselves up, or we can use it to damage and destroy. God gave me this recently:

“If you spend 10,000 hours putting yourself down, are you an expert?”

In his podcast and other podcast interviews, Jon Acuff talked about his book about overthinking. According to Acuff, we have this wonderful thinking machine: “Why would we want to turn that off?” Acuff mentioned using Zig Ziglar’s positive affirmations and cited Ziglar as influential to his work. There’s power in words. For example, I used to challenge kids with whom I worked to use their super powers for good. I think that’s what Acuff is getting at with his recent work.

At church, our pastor led us through a sermon series entitled “Love Hurts.” In that series, Pastor Kenny talked about ways we hurt each other, even at church, and ways we blame one another and even blame God sometimes. Pastor challenged us to define ourselves based on what God says and not what we or others say about us. (You’re welcome to watch Pastor and me discuss some of these things last Sunday.)

If you read this, you know I’m on a motorcycle kick. I had a conversation with a colleague who rides. He shared he prays before he leaves, and he prays when he returns. This speaks to having a proper mindset (and gratitude). It’s important to have a good mindset so that we can focus on the things that need our focus. With motorcycles (and other things), we need to have a positive mindset. Years ago, I remember watching Nick Wallenda walk across part of the Grand Canyon. I don’t remember breathing when we watched; it was literally that intense. Yet, we could not look away. In the pre-walk show, Nik prayed; it was easy to tell that he prepared his mindset. I’d imagine he used visualizations; I bet he used positive self-talk; and I know he prayed. That was obvious; as he walked, he praised God, illustrating that positive mindset.

Think of self-talk this way: When we badmouth ourselves, we are literally badmouthing God’s creation. God does not make mistakes. You/I are not mistakes! Please take a few minutes and read how God defines us, how He sees us (and check out any of the other hyperlinks for additional information). You have an opportunity to shift your thoughts from deficit thinking to that of a strengths-based mindset, being more than conquerors. Remember this: Nothing will separate us from the love of God. There is great comfort in that. Folks, we’re not perfect; church isn’t perfect. I really believe there should be some comfort in that. Rather than expecting a place with perfect people (think: social media posts!), we can be our real selves.

Don’t give up!

You’ve got this!

You are enough!

#God #mindset #selftalk #positivity #language #prepare #HowGodDefinesYou #affirmations #motorcycles