Use the Three Ps to Defeat Your Inner Critic and Think Positively.
The way you talk to yourself in your head can have a huge impact on how you behave in real life. If you are the type to struggle with an overly critical inner voice, you can try to change your habits with the three Ps.
As the blog Barking Up the Wrong Tree points out, self-criticism can be harmful if your inner voice is less than truthful. It’s great to be aware of your own shortcomings and weaknesses, but negative emotions alone will pull you down and affect your performance. To understand what you are doing, focus on the three P.s which are:
- Persistence: how long will it last? Will it really last forever or is it a setback that you can overcome in a short amount of time? For example, “I’ll never get smart enough” or “I just haven’t learned it yet.”
- Prevalence: is this problem universal? Is it an inevitable law of the universe or a conditional one? For example, “I don’t know how to be organized” or “I need to practice being more structured.”
- Personal: Is it who you are or is it just happening? For example, “I’m not doing my job well” or “Today sucks, but I know I can do better.”
These three areas are key to how we perceive ourselves. Your self-criticism can be self-destructive if you focus on the wrong things in any of these areas. You may feel that your problems will never change, that they are universal, and that the fault lies entirely with you. By soberly analyzing the truth in these three areas and being honest with yourself about your strengths, you can be more positive about yourself and stop dragging your own thoughts down.
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