Welcome Back Readers,

Continuing on from my ‘Changing Your Mindset Will Help You Achieve Your Goals In 2025’, we will be discussing the first point: how negative self-talk and negative talk in general will hold you back.

Negative talk, whether it be directed at yourself or towards others, determines the perspective that you hold in life. Your words hold so much power, and the words you say will become the fruits of your life; it is a reflection of what is inside of you.

What your core is made up of will be what you speak about. If you constantly find yourself gossiping about others or talking harshly about yourself, multiple factors can come into play. You may not be satisfied with your life and where it is going, or perhaps there is something that you have been putting off that you now see another individual doing and excelling at, which has sparked jealousy or anger within you. It could also be your environment or friendship group (people in close proximity to you).

How to go from negative self-talk to positive self-talk:

Monitor your thoughts and the words that you say to yourself without interjecting.

By doing so, you will be able to notice the recurring limiting beliefs and self-sabotaging tendencies that you have. One-time thoughts are not enough to make an individual insecure, but thoughts that you regularly have begin to form a way of thinking, which becomes a belief that you hold.

For instance, if you have a bad hair day and make a single negative comment about it, but normally you believe that your hair is amazing, just in this circumstance you didn’t like your hair does not make you insecure about it. But if you notice that you make comments about your hair every single day and that those comments are extremely negative, even when complimented on it you still think negatively towards it, then it becomes a problem.

Begin to think of opposing words to counter these thoughts

Once you have identified what your reoccurring negative thoughts are now the work begins. You will now need to find positive words to counter those thoughts.

An example of this is if you continuously think to yourself, “I hate the way that my body looks,” you can counter this by finding a specific thing about your body: “I like the way that my hips look.” Once you have thought of a positive thing to counter your thoughts, begin to work on the things in your body that you do not like. Go to the gym or walk a minimum of 8k steps a day. By working on yourself from a positive standpoint, you will begin to treat your body with the love and respect you need to make a change, and you will start to find confidence and pride in the fact that you are working on yourself and in the results that you will gain.

Monitor your surroundings: are they very negative, toxic, or positive and fruitful?

What do your surroundings encourage? Do they make you want to become a better person and improve your life, or do they make you become heavily focused on other people’s lives, their wrongdoings, flaws, business, and not encourage your growth?

If you find yourself in a negative environment or around groups of people, then determine for yourself what you want from life. If you are reading this article, then I can imagine that you are someone who is looking to change your circumstances to become your best self. So you are willing to put in the work to be the more elevated you.

If you surround yourself with people who encourage growth and are determined to achieve anything of value in their lives, it is essentially a positive environment where your growth and flourishing are paramount.

Now begin to change your surroundings

Once you have identified whether your surroundings are positive or negative, you must begin to change environments or limit your access to them as much as possible. By limiting your access and then deciding to change your surroundings, you can create a more beneficial environment. However, I would say before you switch environments, you should do the inner work on yourself first so that you don’t begin repelling the people in the positive and growth-oriented environments.

By doing the inner work on yourself, you become aware of your traumas, limiting beliefs, and habits that are not benefiting you.