Who do you listen to?
No, I am not talking about your partner, who I am sure you are seeing much more if you are working from home or being very sensible about your movements. Neither am I talking about your boss, who is probably distanced from you due to many of you working from home.
It’s You!
Then who am I talking about? I am talking about you, and your inner voice! We all know we have inner voices that keep sending messages to us constantly. If you look at it closely, we have two inner voices: a critical inner voice and an internal voice that is a champion, have you noticed that? Have you experienced the difference between the two?
I don’t have what it takes!
The critical inner voice is the negative voice. These negative voices or thoughts prevents us from being our best. They are a source of discouragement and have a negative impact on our thoughts and behaviours. It can make us less confident, doubt ourselves, be overly critical of ourselves, just to name a few of the negative outcomes. It can be evidenced in statements such as: Nobody appreciates what I do; I can never achieve that goal; I am in way over my depth; I will never survive this situation and I don’t have what it takes1. The critical inner voice is not to be mistaken with our conscience. As a general rule, the critical inner voice is harsher and more punitive than your conscience.
Where is my inner champion?
We also have an alternative inner voice – the inner champion. The inner champion is the positive voice. It will encourage you, boost your self-esteem, make you feel motivated and make you have a spring in your step. So how do I awaken my inner champion? A simple way is to think of a situation you are facing right now and think of all the positive things that could come out of it. Writing it down may help. Push yourself to keep going till you really exhaust all your positive thoughts.
What is positive about the current situation?
For example, in the current situation with COVID-19, you may be working from home, in self isolation or even in a lockdown. If we search deep enough, there are plenty of silver linings in the dark cloud. Here are a few to get you going: an opportunity to spend more time with our family and loved ones, and especially to the many hoteliers whose work takes a lot of personal time sacrifice; an opportunity to focus on self-development, something we never ever find enough time for; or even exercising and keeping fit within the constraints we face; an opportunity to speak to your friends and rekindle those long standing relationships, the ones you never had enough time for; an opportunity to learn a new skill, follow an online course and the list could go on. For those of us who are privileged to lead a team and to be responsible for others, is it a time you can connect more with your team members that you have not had the opportunity to spend time with? Is there a call you can make that will brighten someone’s day and make a difference to them, by showing you care?
The Question
One day, hopefully sooner than later, normalcy will start returning to our lives. When that day comes, what will you have to show for yourself? Is your account that you let your inner critic influence you and that you enveloped yourself in self-pity, kept complaining about how bad the situation was and didn’t do much else? Will you have to regret that when the day comes: whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them?*
Or if you listened to your inner champion, and have achieved positive outcomes, outcomes that you are proud of, would you hear your inner champion say to you ‘Well done! You have been faithful with a few things; you will be rewarded with many things.*(*adapted from the Bible, Mathew 25)
Abraham Lincoln once said "I will prepare and someday my chance will come."
The choice is yours, choose wisely!