Self-Talk is one of the most powerful tools that you have in your life skills toolbox. It will help you develop and manifest your dreams. But like any other building tool, if used the wrong way it can easily tear down everything you have built. The sad truth is the tearing down will happen a lot faster than the building it up again. I remember building card houses and towers with a deck of playing cards has a child. I would work real hard to get them to stand up by themselves and the feeling of accomplishment that came when my card tower was three or four cards high. But if they fell, I wasn’t all that eager to do it again.
I have been asked by one of my clients why I think having a personal mission statement is important. The first thing that came to mind was my own personal mission which I wrote 20 years ago and is still to this day the guiding light upon my life’s path. I will share it with you at the end of this blog. To answer the question as to why it’s important I would quote Dr. Stephen R. Covey, author of, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”
We all know Aesop’s Fable “The Tortoise and the Hare.”
The story concerns a rabbit who taunts a slow-moving tortoise and is challenged by the tortoise to a race. The rabbit soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, takes a nap midway through the course. When the rabbit awakes however, he finds that his challenger, crawling slowly but steadily, has arrived before him. I can remember hearing this story as a child and to quote a famous Looney Tunes character Elmer Fudd, “Silly Rabbit” is what I thought about it back then. Well I’m not a child anymore although my grandchildren would tell you I am.