LIFE STRATEGIES
Internal factors are reactions that you create inside yourself in response to the world. Even though they happen inside you, it's best to think about them as behaviours because they are actions that you choose. By choosing how to perceive yourself, you can either behave your way to success or behave your way to failure. For example, if you believe you are competent and special, you will live up to that truth. If you believe you are incompetent and worthless, you will live down to that truth.
The powerful internal factors that shape your self-concept are:
internal dialog
Internal Dialogue:
This is the continuous conversation that you have with yourself about everything that happens to you. This dialogue is constant, happens in real time (at the same rate at which you would speak the words aloud), and provokes a physiological change (with each thought comes a physical reaction).
Labelling:
labling
Humans tend to organize things into categories. We even categorize other humans by labelling them into groups, subgroups, classes and functions. But were you aware that we label ourselves? For better or worse, these labels have a powerful impact on our perception of self because we tend to "live" the categories we've attached to ourselves ("I'm a loser" or "I'm a winner.")
Ask yourself the following questions in order to start identifying and evaluating your labels. Write your answers down so that you can review them later.
1. How do you label yourself? Are you a career woman, a mom, an accountant, a politician? Are you a failure or a winner? Are you a "fat girl" or a "pretty girl?" Write down all the labels you attach to yourself, going back as far as you can remember.
2. Where did these labels come from? Did they come from you, your parents, teacher or a friend? Look at each label you wrote down in the above question, and identify where each one came from.
3. Are you living to your labels? How are your labels working for you? What are your payoffs?
Tapes
tape head
These are beliefs that have become so deeply ingrained that they "play" automatically in our heads and influence our behavior without our awareness. Unlike labels ("I never win"), tapes have context: "I won't get the promotion because I never win." Tapes are dangerous and potentially self-defeating because they have the power to set you up for a specific outcome.
Fixed Beliefs / Limiting Beliefs
limited beliefs
Fixed beliefs are the beliefs we hold about ourselves, others, and life's circumstances that have been repeated for so long they have become ingrained and are difficult to change. Limiting beliefs are the beliefs we have about ourselves that limit what we reach for and achieve. They also cause us to block any conflicting (positive) information while confirming any new negative information.
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