Quiet your inner negativity, with former Navy SEAL David Goggins

 “Self-talk has been the biggest thing in my life,” says former Navy SEAL David Goggins. He knows he’s not alone. He also knows it’s largely, to use his words, “a crappy dialog.” The problem is that our priorities become the superficial stuff bombarding us all day, every day. Instagram, Facebook, TV. “Everything out there is you’re trying to keep up with somebody. You’re not trying to find your own self.” In his Big Think+ video, “Push Past Negative Self-Talk,” Goggins explains what you can do to get back on track.

Take out the garbage

Goggins suggests clearing out your mind as best you can, allowing it to become still. Wait out the static until the voice you start to hear is your own. Begin a positive inner dialog with yourself that examines, reviews, and supports personal goals that genuinely matter to you.
Keep the conversation going throughout your day to keep from falling back into the unreal world, distracted by the pressure to satisfy standards that have little do with what’s truly important to you. Goggins says the continual self-feeding of positive self-talk helps shape your subconscious so that you have the “proper fuel to attack the world.”

Start the day feeling strong in yourself

For Goggins, the process starts every morning when the alarm goes off. Forget the Snooze button. Whether he feels like it or not, Goggins performs his morning routine — cleaning, going for a run, and so on. He forces himself to step up no matter what because it gets him his first victory of the day: “I want to win the war in the morning.” Early positive reinforcement, he says, is key because “the second I leave my house, the second you look at your phone, the second you turn your TV on, you’re in a battle.” That good feeling helps you steel yourself for any negativity the day may bring.
Your self-talk, in the end, is meant to help you believe in yourself and your own priorities, and if you’ve got an internal dialog going that’s both positive and real, you’ve got what you need to stay focused on getting done what you yourself believe needs to be done. Regardless of “what anybody says to you,” says Goggins, “no matter what you hear, you know the truth and you’re living through the truth. No one can penetrate that. No one.”