Just over a year ago, I started to run on a somewhat regular basis.  Prior to that, I was a self proclaimed couch potato except for walking the dog.  I don’t run fast or very far, but it’s still running.  For a long time, I hesitated to call myself a “runner” – either to myself or to other people.

One morning when running, I started to think about the various descriptions we use for ourselves – how that voice inside our heads would describe us if it was talking to someone else.  Yes, running in a lot of ways is like meditation and the mind can go down some strange roads.  Anyway, it occurred me that I had been using a lot of negative terms to describe myself in years past.  You know, like overweight, out of shape, unattractive, not good enough, procrastinator….  Yes, that voice is annoying.

But suddenly, I decided I could add the term “runner” to the list.  Huh. And as I thought about it, more positive terms popped in my head.  By the end of the run, I was thinking how we talk to ourselves far more harshly than we do our friends.

I mentally challenged myself to come up with a list of, say, fifty terms to describe who I was or at least how I saw myself.  It’s an eye opening thing to do.  Seriously.  Write your own list and take a good look at it.  Would your friends and family agree or disagree?

Why do we allow that internal voice of self description to be so dang negative?  Why can’t we see in ourselves what our friends see?

That negative voice chips away at your soul.  It chips away at your self esteem.  Sometimes, it can become a self fulfilling prophecy – we become a lazy, overweight, procrastinator because that is what the voice SAYS we are and we begin to believe it.

What if that voice said nice things?  What if that voice became like your best friend?  What if the voice was bolstering your self esteem instead of chipping away at it every waking moment?

And so, after all this internal dialog I have finally convinced myself to add another term to the list. I have decided to call myself a writer.  To you that may seem like a very small thing but for me it is a huge admission.

Now go, write your list and if you hear that negative voice tell it to sit down and shut up because you have better things to listen to.