How to Talk to Yourself

Scenario: "Dude, you gotta be your harshest critic. Blast yo' self. You'll do better and make billions. Yay!" But if you're just blasting yourself for every itty-bitty thing that happens to you, you're destroying your self-esteem. And, once you lose your self-esteem, you'll lose all hope of building a ridiculously awesome company that rocks the world. So how should you really talk to yourself? Dump negativity, and get your booty thinking: "I'm already a badass." When you use that as a foundation to everything you tell yourself, you start fighting every struggle fiercely. Instead of whimpering about some certain flaw, you start seeking ways to overcome it.

Trash Negative Mumbo-Jumbo

You know those filthy-sucky phrases that depressingly drag you down:

• "I suck."
• "My customers want to hurt me."
• "My employees hate me."
• "I can't ever do anything right."
• "My nose = too big."

For every negative thing you tell yourself, you're chewing away at your self-esteem. Think of it this way:

You = Born a Badass.

Imagine when you still floated in mommy's tummy. Mommy's tummy injected you fully with badass-juice. So when you were a toddler, you believed you could do anything and everything. "I'm a one sexy badass," you told your tiny-self. Your self-esteem was sky-mutha-$@^@!$-high. No one could touch you. You dreamed the impossible, and knew you could achieve it. Yet, enter the bastards when you got older -- those who told you:

• "You're too small."
• "You're too stupid."
• "You're too slow."
• "Your nose = too big."

So, you started believing them. You started questioning yourself. You started shredding yourself with your flaws. Worse: You started depleting a portion of your badass-juice every instance you criticized yourself. Then the inevitable: you drained the entire badass-juice from your body. Your self-esteem: squashed. The next thing you know:

1. You're losing customers to competitors.
2. Your veteran employees leave you for smaller firms.
3. Your intellectual property suffers.
4. Your vendors sue.
5. You file for bankruptcy.

Uh-oh. But, lucky for your cool-self, it doesn't have to end that way.

Your Body's Like a Big-Freakin' Coke Bottle

That bottle contains your badass-juice. You could empty the bottle with incessant criticisms. Or, you could fill it up -- and keep it filled -- with sweet encouragement: Every positive reinforcement adds more badass-juice to your bottle. Each makes you more resilient, determined, and driven to imprint your mark on the crazy world. Instead of whining about how the world's so full of hostility, you instead get yourself thinking:

• "I'm the fiercest fighter in my industry."
• "I overcome trivial obstacles that impede my path to stardom."
• "People who don't believe in me drive me to prove their ineptitude."

You're already a badass. No one can take that away from you. The template to get you filling your bottle:

"Ten reasons why I'm the baddest mutha-$%^!^@ around: _____________."

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