Anyone interested in doing extraordinary things and living a whole life is guaranteed to meet resistance.

However, this resistance doesn’t always come in the form of train wrecks or rock bottoms. It tends to come packaged a bit more strategically than that.

Psychologists call it self talk and it’s the conscious thoughts and unconscious assumptions (and we’ll add the spiritual voices) that attempt to interpret every experience we have throughout the day. In layman terms, self talk is the voices inside of our head. And if you’re anything like me, these voices are often far more negative than not.

I recently began tracking this negative self-talk in order to observe the influence it had in my life. What I found was resistance at it’s best.

“I dont have the right to be here. | You’re stupid. | Im going to be out of work within the month. | No one understands you. | Failure is inevitable for you. | You will never find your place.”

Disturbing, I know, but these were the most reoccurring negative thoughts I had in a two day period of time. Even more disturbing is that I’ve lived for a long time believing that some level of this self-talk was the truth.

These “voices” make up an internal advisory board that influences every feeling we feel and decision we make. Yet, most of us have no idea that they even exist. Sadly, we assume that we’re a half-glass-empty person or that we have an active imagination, and end up letting these internal negative critics talk us into a very small world of low self-esteem and crippling fear.

So, its time to resist the resistance. For the sake of our lives. For the sake of our families. For the sake of our world. It’s time to kill the critic.

1. ID the Critic.

In order to kill these negative voices, you’ve got to identify them first. Here was my plan of attack.

I spent 2 days tracking ALL of my self-talk, positive and negative. Every time I felt something or made a decision throughout my day, I’d take a moment, ask myself what thought influenced that feeling or decision, and then write it down. Once I was a bit more acquainted with my self-talk, I simply recorded it anytime I heard it.

If you’re anything like me, you will end up with an abundance of self-sabotaging thoughts and a small percentage of encouraging ones. However, don’t let the unhealthy ratio scare you. You’ve just successfully identified what your enemy sounds like.

2. Re-Build Your Advisory Board.

Now that we’ve targeted the voices we want to effectively terminate off of our advisory board, we now have to find the ones we want to keep around. I’d suggest starting with the Divine voice.

If there’s any question, God is not the old man that spends his days judging dead people and looking over your shoulder to make sure you’re living correctly. He’s the one constantly speaking kind and empowering things to you. He’s the voice inside your head, that often directly contradicts the negative self-talk. And, if we have any hope of overcoming our small and negative worlds, we must learn to differentiate his voice from the others.

Start with your most consistently recorded negative self-talk. Read one statement at a time and simply ask God what the truth about that thought actually is. Don’t second guess. Simply write down the first and second positive thing that comes to mind (More often than not, this is God speaking through inspired thought). If you’re not comfortable with this, one thing I love to do is to ask God to inspire or remind me of a Biblical reference that speaks directly to the issue at hand. (Or, refer to this very practical guide to hearing God’s voice written by a friend)

His voice may sound different to all of us, but here are a few ways he responded to me when I gave it a try.

(Negative self talk) You are stupid. : (Divine voice) You’re designed to see things uniquely and I love the way you think. | I’m always misunderstood and I dont have the right to be here. : You don’t have to worry about being understood by that person, I’ll open the hearts and minds of all the right people to see your gold. | I’m going to be out of work within the month. : Don’t worry about your income; I’ve got incredibly exciting things ahead for you.

God’s voice is the best starting point, but He’s not the only one speaking affirming messages. We have healthy experiences and conversations in our past that are worth listening to as well. Read what the critic says and then think about an event or encouragement in your past that directly contradicts it. Write it down.

3. Start your day against the voices.

I start my day against the voices. – Jon Foreman

If we have any chance of killing the internal critic, we must be intentional. They are going to bring past failures, shame and flat out lies to convince us that we are not who God says we are. However, with a quick rebuttal and some intention, we can resist the resistance.

I have an Evernote on my phone that I refer to as “Thoughts of a Son.” It documents the critic’s thoughts and the contradicting positive thoughts – authored by God and others. Somedays I start my day by reading it and on other days, I find myself running back to it. And every time I do, it has this unexplainable way of inviting me out of a limiting mindset and in to a moment with God – where the resistance has no ground to stand on.

I’d highly recommend it.

PS. Due to a URL change, Facebook erased 150+ “likes” on this post. So, regardless if you “liked” it before, please feel free to do so again. Thanks!

Photo Cred: Lorenzo Petrantoni