Battling my inner dialogue

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You are the easiest person to fool.

Have you ever heard that before? When I first heard it, read it to be exact, I smiled for its underlying humor, but as time went by the smiling gave way to worry. How many time a day am I fooling myself? Is it really that easy? My inner dialogue was the source of my problems and the reason I did not want to deal with that problem at that time…

A couple of days later though the same thoughts re-emerged. How easily do I fool myself through my inner dialogue? How much damage has this continuing voice inside my head done to me over the years. They say that 85% of all your inner dialogue is negative. We basically spend our days in this mist of negative thoughts trying to accomplish things but mostly dream walking through our daily lives. 

The cultivation of negative thinking.

When you get your daily information from mainstream sources targeted at making you feel afraid and just consume it is easy for your inner dialogue to be negative. For me this became very clear on day when I was asked to run a small marathon. 

Every weekend I like to run a certain distance in the place in Pylaia Greece where I live. I did not used to measure the distance, just the time in which I did it. One day in my crossfit gym a couple of friends suggested that we run the Alexander the Great marathon race that is being held in Thessaloniki every year, in the 5k distance. The first thing that came to my mind was ‘Dear God I cannot run 5k and be in a decent condition after...I am not doing this.’, then came a stream of negative thoughts about my age, my physical condition, the fact that I was not a true member of the younger gang in the gym etc. But the next weekend I decided to measure the distance I ran every week, just to know how much work I need to put in for next years marathon run. So I installed Runtastic and went for my regular run, finishing in a pretty good time for my standards at 22 minutes. When I looked at the app to see the distance I was blown away. It was a little bit more than 5k!!! The distance I easely run twice a week I was afraid to run for one time with friends! 

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That was for me the first big revelation on how much my negative inner dialogue has an impact on my decision making. I thought ‘You idiot. Imagine how many more things you could do all these years but did not for no good reason!’

How to deal with your worst enemy.
Since I’ve discovered that my worst enemy is between my ears I had to find a way to conquer him, and after a long time trying different things I am sharing to you my six ways of getting over negative inner dialogue.

1. Learn to pay attention to you inner dialogue. The first thing you need to do is to pay attention to it so that you know when your inner dialogue plays games to you. I preferred meditation for this and the app Headspace is what I used and still prefer. I learned to consciously monitor my thoughts and guide them away from negative thinking when needed. 
2. Positive affirmations. I know it sounds corny, but the do truly work! Every day I repeat my positive affirmations about me and my work and guide my thoughts towards them. The power of positive affirmations is great, as long as you get past you inner dialogue that at this moment is telling you that all these a lot of crap. 
3. Positive goals. I am a big fan of writing my goals down every single day. I used to do it once a year and check them out daily but writing them down every single day does much more than you can imagine for you subconscious and your inner dialogue. Just try it for a couple of weeks!
4. Keep away from negativity. You have to learn to PROACTIVELY keep away from negativity. Do not watch the news, instead carefully select your information channels for your industry and likings (Steemit trending is always good!). What is truly important will eventually come your way. As for negative people, all I am going to say is ‘Don’t waste a minute with them.’
5. Action. Benjamin Disraeli said ‘Action doesn’t always bring happiness but there can not be happiness without action.’ Every day you must act towards your goals, your happiness and helping the people around you.
6. Remember why you are here. There is something called ‘Memento mori’ and it started out a way of thought in ancient Greece and onwards. I first came in contact with this way of thinking when I read a book by the stoic philosopher Seneka. The book was Letters to Lukilios, where Seneka stated in many parts of the books that coming to terms with your inevitable death is something that will change you way of thinking and your priorities. After that realization you will be taking more opportunities and risks and not let trivial things keep you back on your goals and dreams. You came to this world destined to do something and this life is not a rehearsal. 

Your inner dialogue can be your worst enemy or your best friend, but what it cannot be is silenced. It will always be there to influence you, but YOU are the one that can control the outcome!

As long as you go for it…

Good luck everyone!