My last post was inspired by an article I read about the tennis player Justin Henin and her "little voice". In Henin's case that voice was supportive and so I was intrigued to read about another tennis player whose "little voice" was more negative.During her match in the Australian Open against the Russian player, Victoria Azarenka, the world No1, Serena Williams, confessed that not only did she not expect to win but her thoughts were not always on the game at hand.
"I was actually thinking: 'If I lose today and I lose in doubles I think I can catch a flight home on Friday'."
"That's not what a champion is supposed to think, but that's what I was thinking."
Clearly, she overcame those negative thoughts as she made a comeback to win the match when she was initially down 0-4.
So if you have days when your little voice is more vocal then don't despair. It happens. What you need to do is concentrate on techniques and strategies that you can effectively use to control your little voice when it threatens to sabotage your goals.
And here are three (3) strategies that you can use to achieve this goal:
1. Stay Focused
Practice being in the moment and staying focused on the task at hand and therefore your immediate or at least short-term goal. Serena Williams was in the middle of an important match but she wasn't focused on the match. She was thinking about her Doubles match and her travel arrangements. True she was down 0-4 but the match was not over.
There will be many times when things don't exactly go your way but that's just life. You need to stay focused on your goals and what you want to achieve. And, once you identify the tasks you have to follow through to have a chance of achieving your goals, the best thing you can do is to fully immerse yourself in the task at hand. The more consistently you're able to accomplish this, the more consistently you'll achieve your goals and your little voice may speak up but you'll just be too busy to pay it any attention.
2. Nurture Yourself
You will no doubt have noticed that your little voice is most vocal when you're feeling run-down and tired. People tend to spend a lot of time rushing around trying to do this and that and often wear themselves out in the process. People also tend to put off looking after themselves until after they've completed a particular project and while there may be times when you have to put in long hours in order to achieve your goals you still need to allow time to look after yourself as well.
So examine your life to see where you can 'create' more time to look after yourself better. Often it just means being a bit more organised, which in itself is no bad thing. However, you may find that, at first your little voice actually starts objecting to you spending more time to take care of you but persist - the rewards will be worth it. You may feel guilty about taking time away from your work to look after you. However, you'll not only feel better about yourself, you'll become more productive and that negative little voice will become less vocal.
3. Create a Positive Environment
It's vital that you create a positive environment for yourself. Examine the key areas you wish to improve on in your life and then identify individuals in each area who have achieved what you're setting out to achieve with the view to associating yourself more with these individuals.
You may wish to ask one or two of these individuals to become your mentor. Alternatively, you create a mastermind group. The key is to surround yourself with positive individuals who have the ability to help you to elevate your thinking.
It is said that your inner world creates your outer world but your environment definitely has an impact on you as well. And the more positive your environment, the easier it will be for you to attain and maintain the mindset needed for you to quell your little voice and achieve your goals.
Special Invitation - Little Voice Bookinar
Blair Singer, the author of "Little Voice" Mastery Is an expert when it comes to mastering your little voice and will be leading a bookinar where he will be teaching individuals "How to Win the War Between Yours Ears in 30 Seconds or Less and Have an Extraordinary Life!"
The Power of TEN
One of the remarkable taspects of this program is that he is allowing every individual who signs up for the Little Voice Bookinar to invite 9 other people to join the program with you. These can be family members, friends, colleagues, members of your mastermind group - anyone who you think could benefit from and really appreciate this training.
This unique arrangement also means that you can have several accountability partners doing the program with you. And so you'll be able to gain so much more from the program. In training programs like this, I've heard of being allowed one accountability partner to take the program with you but I've never before heard of a program where you can invite nine others to do the program along with you.
Just think about it...10 people working together to achieve your individual and group goals - that's powerful.
This program will serve as an excellent foundation for you to achieve a truly outstanding 2010 and so do check it out there're lots of other great bonuses as well. Click the link below for more details:
Little Voice Bookinar
P.S. Regarding the tennis, the finals of the Australian Open will be between Serena Williams and Justine Henin. Serena Williams is the defending champion but it will be interesting to see who has the greatest control of their "little voice".
