Managing Your Internal Dialogue: Positive and Negative Self-Talk

Have you woken up in the middle of the night — worried about how an upcoming meeting will turn out? Talk yourself out of doing something that would be challenging but achievable? Or start worrying about how many ways a project could fail?

You are not alone.

At some point, everyone has negative thoughts, or what Shirzad Chamine, author of Positive Intelligence: Why only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential and How You Can Achieve Yours, calls “saboteurs.”

Chamine believes that “Your mind is your best friend and your worst enemy.” In the book, he shares scientific evidence and life stories that illustrate how we can sabotage ourselves with negative thoughts. On the other hand, we can help ourselves by no longer listening to the negative internal dialogue and start listening to our “sage.”

Our sage is the part of our mind that uses behaviors such as empathy, curiosity, creativity, fearlessness and a clear-headed focus; it supports you in being more efficient and happy.

Positive Intelligence combines the worlds of neuroscience, psychology and business in a way that is not overwhelming nor pretentious. Not only is Chamine a remarkable storyteller, but he also backs up these stories with scientific facts along with applicable tools and techniques to ward off those saboteurs.

Reading this book, you will discover how to:

• Identify and reduce the effects of your saboteurs
• Measure your positive intelligence for yourself or your team
• Identify the tipping point for peak performance
• Increase your positive intelligence in as little as 21 days
• Develop the use of your sage with five techniques
• Apply these tools and techniques to increase performance individually or with a team.

One key takeaway I found was taking an adverse event that has happened either individually or in a group and being able to then ask:

“Even though this is not a good situation, what is something positive or an opportunity that we have because of this event or crisis?”

Like so many others, I am continually looking for ways to improve my effectiveness and performance at work and in life. This book is one that I will definitely keep around to refer back to when I feel I need it.

Perhaps when I wake up in the middle of the night.