Can you talk yourself out of a bad mood? That depends. Do you give yourself the freedom to fully feel what you do and to talk to yourself in empathetic ways that let your emotions flow in and out of your mind like white clouds in a blue sky? Heavy thoughts can get stuck in your skull like a nail in a car tire, letting your confidence escape. What discouragement doesn’t want you to remember:
1. YOU CAN PUT ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER. The freedom to talk permits you to take little steps of hope during tough or impossible times. Example: “Scolding myself to clean off my desk and to just let go of old stuff leads me down a dead-end alley.”
2. YOU CAN CORRECT A MISTAKE. The freedom to talk permits you to correct painful past mistakes by making new choices today. Example: “I can change from being a person who is always late, to being one who is nearly always on time.”
3. YOU CAN MOVE FORWARD. The freedom to talk permits you to move forward instead of holding on to the old…clothes, knick-knacks, memories. Example: “I feel proud that I finally cleaned out my closet and donated my old clothes to Goodwill.”
4. YOU CAN FEEL HURT AND BE OPEN. The freedom to talk permits you to honor yourself when people say one thing but do another…they don’t walk the talk. Example: “What will it take for you to call home and tell me where you are going to be?”
5. YOU CAN DISCUSS INSTEAD OF DICTATE. The freedom to talk permits you to get off your soapbox and lecture less while listening more. Example: “Instead of listening to my views again, why don’t you discuss your ideas?”
6. YOU CAN GO EASY. The freedom to talk permits you to choose to wrestle the biggest alligators in the stress swamp first. Example: “I’ve got to do what’s important to me instead of what’s urgent for everybody else.”
7. YOU CAN BEFRIEND YOURSELF WHEN LIFE STINKS. The freedom to talk permits you to be nice to yourself when you feel down, off, or out of sorts. Example: “I’m not a bad apple in the orchard of life when there’s a frost freeze.”
8. YOU CAN OPEN UP DOWNED LINES OF COMMUNICATION. The freedom to talk permits you to step back and stop working so hard at one-way communication. Example: “I would be wise to be the first one to change and the last one to give advice.”
9. YOU CAN FIND FAULT-FINDING FUNNY. The freedom to talk permits you to laugh out loud when someone drops a guilt bomb on ya’. Example: “Hey, you’re talking like a wiener instead of a winner!”
Are you in the habit of talking to yourself in caring ways when hope feels as distant or slim as a tiny reed blowing in the wind?
COURAGE AND CIVILITY
Courage is the driving part of the word discouraged. Encourage yourself to move forward instead of spinning your wheels in discouragement during stormy or emotionally charged times, by using the “Talk to Me” system.
BEST BOOK MARKETING – ONLINE
“Talk to Me” is in the Semi-Finals 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the category of “Best Book Marketing – Online.” The Independent Publisher Book Awards were conceived as a broad-based, unaffiliated awards program open to all members of the independent publishing industry. The awards are intended to bring increased recognition to the thousands of exemplary independent, university, and self-published titles produced each year, and reward those who exhibit the courage, innovation, and creativity to bring about change in the world of publishing. Visit www.independentpublisher.com for continuing Awards coverage.
ABOUT CORPORATE TRAINER AND COMMUNICATIONS PSYCHOLOGIST DENNIS E. O’GRADY, PSY.D.
There is no law that says you have to feel good all the time to be a good person. Can you control what you say to yourself today? You bet. In fact, how you talk to yourself and to others largely determines what you do and what you don’t change, and whether your mood flies high or crashes in the low lands. Dr. Dennis O’Grady shows you the “keep it simple” ways to do just this in his latest book called “Talk to Me: Communication Moves to Get Along With Anyone.” Why not show your passion? The freedom to talk essentially permits you to passionately pursue your dreams through the vehicle of understanding your own communication preferences and your opposite communicator type talk habits. Empathizer communicators, for example, can be like Instigators who don’t take a project rejection at work as a personal reflection.