Common Exhibit #1: Recognizing and Revising Self-Talk Patterns Aidan Pilon | Spring 2017

I would describe my inner voice best as a road that comes to a spit, in one direction is a critic and the other is a guide. Metaphorically speaking, an angel sits on one shoulder and a devil on the other. The angel is my inner guide and the devil is my inner critic. The "devil" is not evil nor does it influence my actions in a deviant/harmful way, however it limits me from the objective and counters the wise direction that the angel offers. The devil is really myself not believing in my ability to do something, which leads me miss opportunities. Unfortunately, my default setting is the critic. One example of this is pickup basketball tournaments with my friends. I never played basketball on a team and most of my friends had played their whole life. This leads me to believe that I can't compete which causes me not to play in a lot of games and miss out on fun. In reality, I'm not that bad at basketball and I'm blessed with athletic ability that I haven't been taking advantage of lately. My inner guide that I try to bring forth in order to silence the critic brings me back to conscious reality that is I can compete on the same level as everyone else. My guide does show but only when I make an effort to channel that negative energy into positive energy and to leave any insecurities behind, because in reality, they don't exist. Confidence is key and it is one of the biggest factors that will silence the inner critic. Just because you feel like you can't do something doesn't mean you shouldn't try, because at the end of the day, you have the potential to do whatever you want as long as you take initiative and take on the task at hand with confidence in your own ability. There will always be people that will try to tell you something is unachievable and out of reach. Don't ever let someone else tell you that you can't do something. They say these things because they don't want to see you succeed after they failed at it. Always take the shot, because even if you miss the first time, you'll eventually hit, and it will be very rewarding. This is the mindset that I needed to adopt and that I have adopted in order to be successful in anything I do.

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Created with images by Jan-Helge69 - "Red clouds"

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