Research has shown that up to 70% of your thoughts are negative. And that endless negative chatter is called “negative dominance.”
A good way to find the roots of your negative thoughts is to initiate what’s called a “Negative chatter exercise.”
Take one day and be fiercely honest about writing down every spontaneous negative thought that comes into your head or out of your mouth.
Once you do this you’ll discover your mental chatter pattern(s)
There are typically 3 main areas:
- Thoughts about not being good enough. #hellooldfriend
- Thoughts around approval.
- Thoughts around trying to maintain a sense of control.
Now what has complicated the heck out of everything is the fact these categories are made up mostly of rules and beliefs that were planted in your mind BEFORE you even had the ability to decide if it was something you should keep in your life skills toolkit.
Generational beliefs play a BIG role in what you believe is possible for you to achieve and attain in your lifetime. Think about this the next time you are up for a promotion or the next time you hear yourself say “I could never do that.”
The trick to avoiding getting locked into self-defeating patterns that seem to have no end in sight is realizing that….your thoughts determine your actions! And if you don’t change them you will predictably pass them down.
As you can see your mental chatter quickly becomes something you need to pay attention to.
So, the question becomes is it even possible to change your thoughts? Have you ever had an experience with this? What happened?