Your self-talk is one of the most important tools you have in your business. If you’re aware of the way you talk to yourself, you’ll find that much of the time, self-talk is negative.

Think of your self-talk as if it is food for your mind. You know that you are what you eat, right? We’ve all heard that. It’s common knowledge that you cannot expect to have a healthy body if you feed it junk food.

Well, what about “You become what you think about?”

Just like the food that feeds your body, you cannot expect to have success in every area of your life, if you’re feeding your mind the equivalent of junk food.

Yes, I get it, it’s easier to eat junk food, fast food – than it is to plan and prepare healthy meals – but that’s a non-plan that will get you sick, tired and aging prematurely.

Same exact thing with your thoughts – it’s a lot easier to default to the negative ones. If you simply take the lazy road of allowing your negative thoughts to program your mood, your attitude and the actions you’re willing to take, you’re in for a bumpy entrepreneurial ride – or at least one that is harder than it has to be. One where you most likely won’t reach the heights of success that you could.

Negative self talk is a habit – a bad habit. One if you’ve practiced for a long time might seem nearly impossible to break. But, it is worth the time to change and redirect. It will hold you back and over the years, if you don’t do something about it, it will lead to doubt about the validity of your dreams and your ability to achieve them.

Just starting to practice positive self-talk can sometimes feel like a big fat lie. That’s because it just feels like you’re going to extremes, trying to jump from feeling negativity to joy with one affirmation! It leaves people feeling frustrated, as if self-talk works for “some people” but not for them.

Today I want to share with you 3 things I’ve used that has changed my habit of negative self-talk into consistent self-talk that is empowering and will help you grow your business.

1. Reduce the amount of negativity in your life.

Turn off the tv – in addition to getting tons of time back for other more important things, the negative, lack-filled messages you’ll receive will be reduced. If you have a couple shows you love, record them and fast-forward through the commercials. Are there any people who are consistently negative in your life? Maybe it’s time to allow those friendships to move away.

If there are negative people in your life you don’t want to (or can’t) allow them to move away, use my “Turn it off” technique. When someone’s being negative and I don’t want to engage or absorb it, I reach up, right above my right ear, and – I turn an imaginary knob to the “off” position. Sounds simple and it is – sometimes the simplest things can have a great impact.

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2. Learn to consciously guide your emotions.

I use something I learned from Abraham-Hicks called the “Emotional Guidance System”. There may be some other similar types of things I’ve seen but this is the easiest and clearest one to use. Learning this from them totally changed my life from one of reactivity to one of more deliberate conscious creation.

It’s a chart that shows 22 basic levels of emotion (download a mini-guide on how to use this here), from totally disempowered and depressed to totally empowered and joyful. It helps you to identify where you are in terms of feeling and then you can find some thoughts that are on the level right above it – which means you’re finding thoughts that are a little more positive.

The whole premise in using this system is to find a feeling (and the words and thoughts that create it) of relief for you. It’s not going to be the same for everyone and you don’t want to jump too high up the scale – which is what most people try to do with affirmations. To learn more, get their original book that explains Law of Attraction and how to use the guidance system!

3. Create a trigger that throws you out of the negative box.

When you find yourself with the negative talk again – don’t beat yourself up or say “You can’t do this right” that’s totally reinforcing and cementing your negative self-talk. Be kind and compassionate to yourself. And use a trigger to break your state and start looking for those better feeling thoughts. A few triggers I’ve used in the past are a rubber band around my wrist. When I find myself with the negative self talk, I snap it hard and pivot. I’ve also used a word said out loud like “delete” and I’ll tap my head. Delete while tapping my head.

On the next episode of the 30 Days of LOA for Entrepreneurs, we will discuss 12 tips to help you effectively outsource in your online business.