Monkey on my shoulder? What? Well we all have one and it has a voice. A quiet but incessant voice that tells you stuff you don’t really need to hear.

You are not good enough. You will fail. You are stupid. People will laugh. You don’t have the skills.

I bet you recognise that Monkey now.

So what are we going to do about that Monkey?

The first thing you are going to do is to start listening to the Monkey. If you cannot hear him you cannot deal with him.

Write down the things he says over a period of time. Let’s say a week to start off with. Grab yourself a notebook and every time you hear his negative whisper write it down. At home, at work, wherever you go.

Once you have a weeks worth of Monkey chatter down I want you to re write this list with space for your reply to Monkey.

Here is how it might go.

You’re not good enough.

Ask him why you are not good enough?

Hear his answer.

Because you don’t have a clue where to start and it’s too late.

Now reply with a counter argument.

Well it’s never too late to start and I can find a way to learn.

Are you getting the picture here?

All of us have negative chatter going on in our heads without us recognising or acknowledging it. It gets into our psyche and we live our lives by its rules.

We need to acknowledge it and argue it out with ourselves. Writing it down makes it real and we very often come out with answers we had never thought of before because we didn’t give the Monkey an argument, we just let him chatter away.

If you do this you will find that the Monkey starts to have a more positive tone and the result for you will be better self-esteem, more confidence and a go get attitude.

I have had a nasty Monkey on my shoulder several times in my life and I have dealt with him in this way.

When I wanted to start writing online and building a website I had to deal with the Monkey first because I honestly didn’t have a clue what to do or where to start. My attempts at finding a way led me down so many paths to nowhere and if I hadn’t of dealt with Monkey along the way I would have quit before I had even begun.

Dealing with the Monkey led me to Wealthy Affiliate, a platform to host my websites but more importantly to a community with a positive pay it forward attitude. Somewhere to learn and somewhere to get positive feedback on my achievements no matter how small.

I hope at the very least this post has given you the confidence to tell the Monkey to shut up or to change his tune.

If you want to tell me about your Monkey leave a comment below. I am always here to help. If you would like to check out Wealthy affiliate, read my review by clicking on this link.

With Grace and Gratitude

Karen