Affirming the Positive: Overcoming Negative Self-Talk for Success (with Help from ChatGPT)

Christine Li  0:01  
Welcome back to the Make Time for Success podcast. This is episode number 128. I do a deep dive into the power of positive thinking in this episode, and I also explain the real importance of learning how to combat our negative self talk. I think negative self talk can come into any of our lives. And it can come in somewhat unexpectedly or somewhat frequently, too. And I think this ends up causing us to lose precious time when we're trying to solve problems and trying to get to our goals. And that's why I think this episode is one you should stick around for in this episode, I also do a little experiment, I use the power of the tool that we now all have at our disposal. It's called Chat GPT. And ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence tool that helps to quickly get us data that we can use to move forward with our questions with our problems with our creations in a way that saves us time. So I thought I would use this new tool chat GBT to illustrate how we can turn the negative into the positive. Within a minute or two. Let's go see how this experiment turned out. And I can't wait to hear what you think about it. Thanks for being here.

Hi, I'm Dr. Christine Li, and I'm a psychologist and a procrastination coach. I've helped 1000s of people move past procrastination and overwhelm so they can begin working to their potential. In this podcast, you're going to learn powerful strategies for getting your mind, body and energy to work together so that you can focus on what's really important, and accomplish the goals you want to achieve. When you start living within your full power, you're going to see how being productive can be easy, and how you can create success on demand. Welcome to the Make Time for Success podcast. 

Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the show. I am very excited to do some live illustrations today about the power of positive thinking and the importance of really combating the part of us that chooses to have negativity and self criticism, going nonstop. I think it's really important for us to address this topic. Because I do believe in my heart of hearts and in my own life, that positive thinking has been the answer to so many different problems and the route to so much success. And I want to share what I believe with you today. 

In this episode. My goal is to talk about the importance of maintaining positive self talk with yourself. And I think this is important because in my own experience, lots of people doubt that positive thinking has any true effect on reality. Lots of people make fun of the idea that something so easy as changing a thought or your mindset could actually be powerfully useful. And still other people are so stuck and used to their familiar patterns of doubting and terrifying themselves, and worrying and criticizing themselves, that they can't even imagine being powerful enough to change that habit, that style of thinking that style of talking to themselves. So again, I think this is a super important topic. And I can't wait to get into the illustration part. So I decided to play around a little bit with this episode and use the power of artificial intelligence to show you how easy it can be to find relief for the part of you that really likes the negative thinking likes the negative self talks, likes to be afraid of all the things. So if you haven't tried ChatGPT, again, it's called Chat GPT. I would highly recommend that you try it out. And I'm hoping Today's episode is a great reason for you to get curious about it. And I hope you do try it and those of you who have dipped your toes into using ChatGPT, I have a feeling you might love it. You might see the power of it for helping us to think through things that typically we've had to use our own brain power to get through. Now. We can just open up ChatGPT on our browser, click in ask a question and have artificial Intelligence, spit out the answer within a minute or two. So that's actually how ChatGPT feels and works. And what I did for this episode is I used ChatGPT to explore certain negative self statements, and to come up with certain positive, powerful affirmations to counter those negative self statements. But in the spirit of using ChatGPT, I didn't even type in the negative self statements that I wanted ChatGPT to counter I just gave ChatGPT this prompt, I said, in two columns, please list negative self statements on the left and powerful positive affirmations to counter the negative statements on the right, period. Please do 20 That's all I wrote in ChatGPT. And I'm going to read to you the results. 

Now before I read you the actual results, I want you to please note, as I'm reading how you feel inside, when I read the negative self statements, versus how you feel when I read the positive affirmations that counter the negative self statements, I believe you're going to feel a radical difference between the two statements. Also, please make sure to note which of these negative self statements you might actually be saying to yourself, currently. So which of these statements is active for you? Currently, now? I'm going to read what ChatGPT generated for me in the space of about two minutes. The first one is I'm not good enough. And the positive affirmation to counter that is I am capable, and worthy. Statement number two, I always mess things up. The counter affirmation is I learned from my mistakes, and I grow stronger. The third one, I'm too old to start something new. Does that sound familiar? If it is, I would love for you to try the positive affirmation. It's never too late to pursue my dreams. Number four are not attractive. The positive counter statement would be I am beautiful or handsome just the way I am. Number five is I'm not smart enough. A very common thing that I hear people worry about. The positive counter statement would be I am intelligent and capable of learning anything I put my mind to. Number six is I can't do this. This is a procrastinators mantra. And the counter statement would be I am capable, and have the resources to accomplish anything I set my mind to number seven, I'm not creative. The counter statement would be I am creative and have unique ideas to offer. Number eight, I'm a failure. Or you could change that to say I feel like a failure. And the counter statement would be I'm successful in my own way, and continue to grow and learn. Number nine, I'm not worthy of love, the counter statement would be I am deserving of love, and I have love to offer others. Number 10 I'm too busy. The counter statement would be I have the time and resources to prioritize what's important to me. Number 11. I'm too shy. The counter statement would be I am confident and comfortable in social situations. Number 12. I'll never be able to do this the counter statement is I am capable of achieving my goals with hard work and perseverance. Number 13. I'm not important. The counter statement to that would be I am valuable and have a purpose. Number 14 I'm not good at anything. Number 14 counter statement would be I have unique skills and talents that I can develop and use to make a positive impact number 15. I'm not worthy of success. Number 15 is counter statement would be I am deserving of success and have the skills and resources to achieve it. Number 16. I'm not good with people. Instead, you could say I have excellent interpersonal skills and can build meaningful relationships. Number 17. I'm not confident. Instead you could say I am confident and believe in myself. Number 18. I'm not popular. Instead, you could say I am loved and respected by those who matter most to me. Number 19. I'm not lucky to counter that I would have you say I create my own luck through hard work and determination. Number 20. I'm not rich. That's a fun one. To counter that. You could say I have everything I need to be happy and to be fulfilled in life. I want you to notice some things I noticed this as I was reading the 20 statements that ChatGPT was pretty good at coming up with the gamut the real range of negative statements that we can say the worst opposite covered how we look how we feel how we worry about our social behavior, how financially well off, we are our luck. And I want to give you that as an example of how chat, GBT can really expand your range of thinking because it's doing the thinking for you. It's gathering from the entire world of information. And when we're doing this ourselves, we're just gathering from our relatively limited data set. So use ChatGPT to kind of get out of your own mind and expand it a bit. So that's the first point. The second point is that I realized as I was reading, the first negative statement, and then the positive second statement, that it was physically easier for me to verbalize and say, the second statement, it's just a lot lighter, to say, I am valuable and have a purpose than it is to say I'm not important. It just brings me down to even say those words. And I certainly hope you don't feel that way. For yourself, I hope you all feel that you're incredibly important. If you're struggling with negative thoughts about yourself or low self esteem, or you're in a bad way lately, I would suggest you just replay what I just said. And use the second statements, use the powerful positive affirmations, to get yourself back up to a better mind frame a better vibration, a better feeling in your heart, and in your mind.

So as you can probably tell already, by tracking your own feelings, from listening to my saying the negative statements, and then the positive statements, the positive affirmations can really lift your mood with just a few words, lifting you above the negative self statements where you might have been feeling stuck, or really yucky or low. And since we talk about success on this podcast a lot, I think it's really important for us to focus on those second statements, those positive, powerful, affirming statements, we want to affirm our own abilities, our talents, our potential, our luck, our wealth, everything that we have. And these statements help us to see ourselves in a more positive light, which then allows us to operate in a way that will help us to achieve actual success, when we start off feeling successful, will end up attracting what we see as success. So another suggestion that I have, aside from using ChatGPT and turning on your computer, again, I want you to start thinking bigger. That's my second tip, I want you to start thinking not just bigger, but really, really, really much bigger, bigger than what even seems reasonable to you bigger in a way that seems almost delusional. If you're thinking, Oh, my God, this is laughable, you're probably on the right track, I want you to think about the world of possibilities. I think the reason I recommend that is that the only way they will allow all of the possible options that are available to us to come to us is to think wildly big, is to create a beautiful, wide open space for those flowing pieces of energy and information and inspiration to come to us. If we're feeling uptight, if we're feeling not good enough, if we're feeling pressed for time, we're just not going to be able to get all those wonderful creative ideas, we're going to feel stressed, we're going to start limiting ourselves, we're going to start thinking we have work block, and then we're going to fail to play bigger because we're going to have failed to think bigger. So always encourage yourself to just push your thinking a little bit further, a little bit bigger, a little bit more wild and then take from that sampling of ideas that come to you take the best take the ones that really suit you take the ones that you like the most. I'm gonna give you now a real world example of where you can use positive thinking, to get yourself out of a stuck situation and get yourself in motion and moving towards success. We love the idea of momentum. Momentum is one of my favorite words. It's one of my favorite activities to get into. Because I feel once I've started moving, it's a lot easier to continue to move. That's the whole purpose of finding your momentum that you want to be coasting through to success rather than struggling and climbing a mountain or slogging through mud or your negative self criticisms to get to the success. We want to have a glide towards success whenever we can. So the real life example I'm going to give you is the idea of wanting to clear clutter out of a spare bedroom. I oftentimes do clarity over clutter channel. lunges with anybody who will enter the challenge with me. And one of the most common problems that people come to the challenge wanting to clear is that spare bedroom. So if this is you, and even if it's not you, if you have a room that you would like to clear up, keep listening. So oftentimes, people leave clutter, as it is because clutter feels overwhelming. It brings a lot of negative energy to our homes and our spaces and to our work areas and to our spare bedrooms. And we oftentimes are busy. So who wants to spend your free time clearing out clutter, many people don't want to choose to use their time in that way. But I want to suggest instead of saying to yourself, this clutter clearing in this spare bedroom is never going to get done. I would love for you to say something more positive, something like I love the idea of this room being clean and clear. And I'm working steadily towards that vision. Another example of something you could say is, I easily can spend 15 minutes every morning to create the vision of a great room to use for my creative projects. Another sentence you could use is I will get this room cleared and tidied within the next 14 days, you can get really concrete and schedule an actual deadline for yourself for that clean, beautiful vision to come to life. All of these statements that I've just read, which I made up are more powerful than saying to yourself, this room is never going to get cleaned. This is never gonna get done. The statements that I created, that were more powerful, they all allow you to operate from a higher vibrational point where you're feeling more positively about the prospect of the cleaned out room, then you're worried about the difficulty of actually getting there. And when we gain power over our resistance, what happens is we move towards our success, that momentum comes, that decluttering comes, that clarity of the room starts to open up. And we start to bring ourselves a better mood, a better feeling a better environment for ourselves. So put yourself in a more positive mindset when you can, when you do you end up attracting the energy and the resources that you need to get any job done. Whether it's a room or a new project, or writing a book or launching a podcast or birthing a child, whatever you're wanting to do getting a new job. It's whatever dreams you have for yourself, I encourage you to dream big, and get your thinking in the right place so that getting that success is easy for you. Remember to always keep the beautiful picture of you succeeding in mind, I want you to keep that top of mind I want you to post pictures in your room of those visions that you have for yourself. Never forget to operate. From that feeling of success that's going to help you from the start. always visualize yourself succeeding at first and then start and then go to the actual success, not just the visualized one. Stay grateful for the opportunity to improve your life and your spaces. How you use it, how you use your body, how you choose to focus in life. Focus on your strengths and your commitment to getting your goals done. And watch the magic of success come into your life like a flood. Thanks for listening to this episode of The make time for success podcast. I had a lot of fun creating this one and sharing it with you. I hope you found it useful and helpful and inspiring. If you did, please share this episode on the podcast with your besties. And also don't forget to subscribe to the show. And leave a review for me that would mean the absolute world to me. I will see you next week with another lovely episode, this time with an interview with one of my favorite guest experts. You know they're wonderful. Alright, I'll see you soon. Bye. 

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Make Time for Success podcast. If you enjoyed what you've heard, you can subscribe to make sure you get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com for past episodes, show notes and all the resources we mentioned on the show. Feel free to connect with me over on Instagram too. You can find me there under the name procrastination coach. Send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes you've been listening to. And let me know any topics that you might like me to talk about on the show. I'd love to hear all about how you're making time for success. Talk to you soon!

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