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The “Other” Destructive Self-Talk Nobody Talks About
Three things superstars do that average folks don’t
Nobody grows up dreaming of a career in middle management. I didn’t but that is where I find myself. Three years ago, I decided that I did not want to put in the effort to reach the senior level I once dreamed of attaining. I was okay with being average and wanted to achieve excellence with other pursuits.
Putting in the effort is only part of the challenge. It starts with self-talk, and I don’t mean the kind of negative self-talk you read about in personal development books.
Nobody talks about middling self-talk — the kind that keeps us locked in a narrow band of averageness. You hardly notice it, but it saps your will and stifles your ambition. It’s nagged me all of my life. What is it?
It’s the self-talk of the average.
I was an average kid, never popular but not unpopular, always somewhere in the middle. My career path followed a similar arch.
My first inkling of middling-self-talk occurred fifteen years ago.
I showed up for work like any other day. I was a car salesman back then. On a typical day, I sold one car. I had never sold two in one day. But on this magical day…
