Do you think your thoughts, the way you perceive external situations and inter-personal interactions, or what you say to yourself has any part in determining whether or not your wellness practice is doing well or not?
I’ll shout from the roof, “YES, What You Say To Yourself DOES Matter To Your Success!”
Many practitioners who are not (yet) <– see what I did there — experiencing the yummy-ness in their practice are dealing with a lot of negative self-talk and self-doubt. I see this to be one of the biggest hurdles to over come.
Do You Think Thoughts Like These?
These negative, self doubting thoughts will hold you back in ways you may not even be able to comprehend.
Not being a psychotherapist, I don’t know all the internal stuff happening, but we do know chemical reactions happen in our bodies when we think positively (or negatively) and we also know that when we have a strong belief that we will succeed, we are more likely to actually see success.
(and if we are generally positive thinkers, but, by chance it turns out something goes wrong or doesn’t result in what we hoped, it doesn’t have such a detrimental impact on us. We are more resilient.)
Not Naive:
It would be great to be able to just simply tell ourselves to “think positive” and it would be all flowers and butter flys, but that is not reality.
Solution:
Find your way to change your thought patterns. What can you do that will work for YOU?
A simple tactic is to become aware of when you do think a negative thought, and practice switching it in your mind to a positive.
Example “therapist thought” might be:
1- Negative: “My last client didn’t show up because she probably didn’t like her last session with me.”
Positive Switch: “My last client didn’t show up. Maybe she just forgot — I’ll contact her to see what happened.”
2- Negative: “I can’t raise my rates, no one will be able to afford it.”
Positive Switch: “My new rates reflect my level of experience and training and those who want to work with me will find a way to do so.”
Do you see the glass as half full rather than half empty?
2 Tricks To “Stop Stinkin’ Thinkin” (as Author, Zig Ziglar refers to in one of his books):
Aside from positive affirmations on post-it notes around your house, There are also a few little tricks to try that will help support you to get your ‘mind-set’ in a positive frame.
#1: Wear a rubber band around your wrist and snap it each time a negative thought enters your mind. You snap the band (not too hard — it is not punishment, rather just a pattern-interrupt) and then re-frame your thought from a negative interpretation to a positive perspective when-ever possible. If you can’t see how to turn it into positive, make it at least neutral as in the example above, with the missed appointment.
#2: Another method is to take time each day and throughout the day to write out a list of your gratitudes. By focusing on the good stuff in your life, it helps you become more in tune with all that is good, and for many practitioners this is really an important part of making the transition to feeling more confident and able to take on the world, presenting your best self, not your reserved, un-sure self.
Surround Your Self With Confidence – Own Your Value:
Everyone feels better when they surround themselves with up-lifting people, and our Clients, vendors, referring partners, and even our friends pick up on how we perceive our selves. We all want to do business with successful businesses, so in fact when we behave in successful ways, thinking positive thoughts, we actually become more successful.
I’ve experienced the change that occurs with positive thoughts, as have many of my mentoring clients.
So, what’s it gonna be for you? Full or Empty? Thrive or barely survive?
Looking forward to reading your comments on what you do when you recognize the “Stinkin’ Thinkin” thoughts are creeping in? How do you turn it around for yourself?
Please share below.
Business mentor, Educator and Inspirer to Clinic Owners & Solo Practitioners. Love to hear from you ~ Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
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great post Irene. Thank you for this reminder and the little tidbits of Information that can make a huge impact on our day to day thinking. It’s so easy to get sucked up into the negatives. It takes work to positively push through what we put in our own ways most of the time. On a second positive thought….maybe that spider didn’t build a home and I didn’t ruin it at all…but planned to go for a joy ride and had my schedule timed out to be in the middle of my path….what a smart spider. Hope it got where it planned to go. Hahahahahah.
Well now Rachelle when you first thought of the spider and how he/she must have felt you were thinking positive and now from that first turning it into a positive you’ve now turned it into a super positive!
Great skill to be able to do.
Thank you Irene. Stinking thinking is a part of my struggles. I do my best to stick with through awareness can come change. Having the opportunity to relate to so many people on this topic I am beginning to believe that negativity is actually human nature. Through this coaching process and the personal development process I am undertaking as well and countless other avenues of my journey in overcoming that it seems people many if not most people face the challenge of negative self talk. It has helped me to “get over myself” when I am choosing awareness that it is all as Rachel above stated…nothing more than stories. Someone recently said “well if I am writing the story, why not write an awesomely amazing story each and every day..every moment”
Love that you’re seeing how you can make the changes needed. And love this –> “well if I am writing the story, why not write an awesomely amazing story each and every day..every moment”
I had a poster on my wall as a kid — “You only live once, but if you live it right, once is enough!”
In other words, this is not a dress rehearsal, as it is so often quoted. Why not start right now, right?
So proud of you and appreciate your being a part of our Academy.
Irene, great post. I think one of the most important things to realize is that a lot of the negative self-talk is really just stories we make up in our minds. “Clients don’t appreciate my value” is just a story. “No one can afford to pay what I charge” is just a story. “Everyone wants to come in on evenings and weekends” is just a story (this is one I’m ready to release). Nothing has meaning except what we make it. We can look at disappointments as obstacles, or choose to see them as stepping stones leading to our success. And I like the rubber-band thing… I may start THAT tomorrow!
Exactly, Rachel!
“Nothing has meaning except what we make it.” I agree completely — it is all in how we interpret the words, the situation, the look, the experience…
again, it is so much happier when we see the full glass full of possibilities, rather than the empty, almost drained, not enough to sustain us glass.
We are all going through this life, one step at a time, but when we can skip, and cartwheel as we go, it’s oh so much more fun!