Guiding Question: We all have an inner voice that doesn’t turn off; does your inner voice help you or hurt you?
Many people say that Michael Jordan is the best basketball player of all time, and he only made 49.7% of his shots. Lebron James only makes 50% of his shots. The best players in the NBA in the last 30 years have missed half of their shots!
Tiger Woods has the greatest golf-winning percentage in golf of all time, and he has only won 22.8% of the matches that he has been in. The great Tiger Woods has lost over 3 out of 4 tournaments that he has played in.
Being perfect should not be the goal because nobody is perfect, and when you are focused on being perfect, you might miss out on a great opportunity because you let perfection get in the way of progress.
When something negative happens, we get the opportunity to show how to deal with and respond to adversity. We are all going to have adversity in our lives, and they are opportunities for you to be a beacon of hope on how to appropriately handle adversity.
If you want to handle hard better, you have to have a strong inner voice. Life is full of setbacks, and the best of the best are able to bounce back from mistakes as quickly as a ball bounces back off the floor or a tennis racket. Roger Federer, one of the best tennis players ever, only won 55% of his tennis points. That means that he has had to learn how to manage losing 45% of the time.
Inside of all of us is a strong voice and a weak voice. Your strong voice is the positive things that you tell yourself that help you capitalize on your strengths and fight through hard times. They are the productive things that you think about and tell yourself. Your weak voice is all the weak and negative things that you tell yourself. Think about and write down what you tell yourself. See how strong your strong voice and your weak voice are.
REFLECTION ACTIVITY
Take 60 seconds and write down your weak voice thoughts, then take 60 seconds and write down your strong voice thoughts.
1 - Which side was easier for you to come up with?
2 - When you look at both sides, what do you think?
Some find it easier to come up with and think about thoughts that come in their strong voice, and others find it easier to come up with and think about thoughts that come in their weak voice.
Understand that even the very best in every profession have strong AND weak voices.
The goal is to make sure that your strong voice has the last word. Train yourself to think that it is normal for you to have a weak voice and there are tendencies for when this voice speaks to you, and then challenge your weak voice so you can turn your inner voice into an inner coach that guides you.
If you talk to others the way that you talk to yourself when you are going through adversity, how would that look and sound? Some say that they wouldn't have any friends. Don't make yourself your own worst enemy. Turn your private voice into an inner coach that guides you through life; that is the ultimate gift because that is the voice that guides you every day.
SOMETHING(s) TO THINK ABOUT
1 - Which voice is stronger - your strong voice or your weak voice?
2 - When is your voice strongest and most beneficial?
3 - When is your voice the weakest?
4 - What can you do to build up and strengthen your strong voice so it is used more effectively?
For a PDF version of this post, click here: Overcoming Obstacles with Your Inner Voice
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