'Do you need to eradicate your inner critic?' 'Are you suffering from excessive negative self talk?'

These questions totally perplex Socialised Mavericks, who would consider them non sequiturs! The reason why these questions just don't make sense to Socialised Mavericks is because they do not experience negative talk, on a regular basis. When they are analysing something, or working through potential solutions their mind is clear. They do not experience a nagging voice that tells them they can't do something, or that they will fail.

Eradicate your inner critic by self manipulation?

Socialised Mavericks are very aware that The Mind, Body and Spirit are connected and therefore able to be manipulated. Your mind can drive your physical state and your emotions and vice versa. Therefore you must not indulge in toxic thinking because if it becomes a habit you will soon believe those toxic thoughts. Then you will act on them. If you want something to change, you must tell yourself a different story.

This is one of the reasons why they appear so confident and are so willing to push past their comfort zones. They have better narratives and have ditched the toxic messaging.

On the rare occasions that there is negative self talk, it stands out in the Socialised Maverick's mind. Like an alien trying to take over! This becomes a red flag, and the Socialised Maverick will stop all mental processing to track down where the negative self talk comes from. They will trace its root, why the negativity has arisen at that moment, how they feel about it and what should happen next.

Perhaps there needs to be more information, or perhaps its driven by some childhood experience not yet exercised. Once the cause is discovered, time is set aside to eradicate it. For a Socialised Maverick, negative self talk is a red flag that needs investigating. It stands out because there is no 'noise' in the mind, no distractions to deal with.

This brings huge advantages of course, more clarity of message and little distraction to name two. It also enables them to stay focused on their objectives.

Can anyone eradicate their inner critic?

Yes! Here are the steps that you can deploy:

• Become mindful of your thoughts. Recognise when negative self talk occurs
• Immediately substitute a negative thought with a positive one. Do this every time for 28 consecutive days. If you neglect to substitute a positive thought immediately. Start again at Day 1. By the end of the 28 consecutive days you will have far more positive thoughts than negative ones.
• Now your mind will be a lot quieter. When negative self talk occurs again, deconstruct your thought and start working on the causes. A solution will present itself
• Be objective with yourself. What evidence is there for the negative self talk, what solutions need to be put in place to negate the doubt?
• Realise that other voices aren't as authoritative as your own
• Stick to the facts, don't assume you know what others are thinking!
• Ignore your critic and just get on with things! Do this often enough and the voice will start to quieten

If you feel that negative self talk is a real problem that you are unable to overcome by yourself, then you may need to seek professional help. For example your negative self talk may be caused by a lack of competence. Perhaps a coach or mentor could help you with that. Or your negative self talk may be caused by emotional hurts etc in which case a therapist or counsellor could help.

Either way, no one should be hampered by negative self talk. Do something about it, rather than accept it. Everyone deserves to feel good and have clarity of thinking.

Even YOU.