Pitching Positivity to yourself
Recently, I attended a pitch fest for start-ups and it gave me an idea for a powerful strategy that I have started to implement. It’s called ‘Pitching Positivity’ and it works like this.
When I teach people to pitch, I walk them through a structure that starts early on with a focus on the problem that their product solves. They explore the pain of the problem and then they introduce the solution in the form of their product. Once they have done this, they explain why it’s the best in the market and what results they are getting with it. Finally, they present figures and examples that back up their claims and reveal why they are worth investing in. At the end, they ask for investment.
When this is done well, it can get people to part with millions upon millions of dollars so it got me thinking. Since a big part of my work in Belief Leadership is getting people to invest belief in something, how might this approach work for our thoughts? Here is an example of how you can use this for your own thinking:
- When you find yourself feeling bad about something, identify the negative thoughts you are thinking about the situation. Articulate the core thought in a problem statement. Write it out.
- Identify the pain that this negative thought process is causing and why it is so important to overcome.
- Think about a more empowering way of thinking about the situation.
- Describe why this new way of thinking about this situation works much better than the old one. Why is this better than all the other ways you could be thinking about it? Write it all down and make it obvious.
- What facts can back up this new way of thinking and ‘prove’ you are on the right track?
- Why is this new way of thinking worth believing in?
- Ask yourself to commit to thinking in this way in the future. Accept the energy, attention and will that will be required and decide fully to think like this moving forward.
Here’s an example of how it might work:
- I’m never going to be able to succeed in this role.
- Believing this will keep me betting against myself and will hold me back and make me feel awful in the process.
- Believing that I can improve and get better, and become amazing at this.
- By believing in this, it will help me persevere and grow and improve. It will help me build more confidence which in turn can help me perform better and make it come true. Being uncertain or negative just isn’t cutting it and won’t help me.
- I’ve succeeded at new things before and I have come out on top before when the odds were stacked against me. I am doing this because others believe I can and deep down I know I can.
- Realizing I can get better at this is very much worth believing in as it gives me the only chance of succeeding.
- From now on, I am going to be vigilant about believing that I will succeed. I will continue to focus on being positive and speaking this way to myself and every setback will just become transformed into learnings I can apply to succeed.
Hope you find this useful. Check out my latest podcast episode just out… a very fun interview with my friend Adam Ashton (one half of the amazing podcast ‘What you will learn’) as we discuss their brand new book ‘Attitude’.
Thanks,
Owen.
