Raise your aspirations and reach for your dreams

We all have our 'internal voice', the self-talk that goes on inside our heads. Given that our brains are quite plastic (see post, below), we're quite susceptible to auto-suggestion and we modify our behaviours accordingly. The potentiality for behavioural modification as a result of suggestion is quite astounding - see, for example, the extreme and negative (destructive!) behaviours that resulted from the 'self-fulfilling prophecy' situation engendered by the Stanford Prison experiment, or the Milgram experiment, which looked at conformism, among other things.

Given that the voice one would probably listen to most frequently and with much attention is our own internal voice, it makes sense then to try and ensure that the way this voice 'speaks' to us is as healthy and constructive as possible. So often, we internally and unconsciously talk ourselves down, disempower our own selves!

But given that we've got quite plastic brains, capable of modification, we can actually tackle this and do something about it.

This simple exercise helps move one from using disempowering speech to more empowered speech.

Instead of saying to yourself:

• "I'll try to..." (lacks commitment), you can say "I will..." (takes responsibility)

• "I should ..." (plays the victim), you can say "I'm choosing to..." (takes responsibility)

• "If only..." (avoids problem solving), you can say "Next time..." (problem solving)

• "I can't do ..." (blocks growth), you can say "I'm learning to ..." (encourages growth)

The photo above shows Tess reaching for the rising sun at dawn on Bald Rock. As you can see, she can do it. Good on you, Tess my beloved daughter.

Reach for the sun!