In the Live Chat this week as well as the great discussions, questions and fun conversations there has been a fair amount of negative self-talk. These are just a few examples of things that people have been saying.

• "I must be useless at this because I haven't made any money after 30 days'
• "I'm rubbish at this"
• "You have to remember that I'm slow and need it in simple terms"
• "I wish I could write as well as you - I'm just crap"
• "I'm not an expert like you ... I just can't get it"
• "This is a stupid question - but I'm not very bright"
• "I'll probably never get it - but I'll keep trying.."

And I could go on. Last week wasn't special. This is typical of comments that appear in the chat week after week - people either just rubbishing themeselves or comparing themselves to others and then rubbishing themselves and/or their achievements.

The problem with negative self talk is that it actually takes more energy than being positive, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and if indulged in too often affect your health and well being.

I had my own moment this week when I read Kyle's blog "What would you do for 156,207 clicks?" Kyle was sharing his Street Articles numbers with everyone as a source of inspiration for what can be achieved.

What did I do? I started criticising myself for my figures not being as good as his. I have written 3 times as many articles with only 4,000 more views. Clearly my writing is not as popular.? Does this mean I'm not such a good writer? Why aren't I seeing the same results? This went round and round in my head until I bought myself up short - because I knew I was being foolish!

I'm a good and popular writer and last year I far exceeeded the writing goals I had set myself both in numbers of articles writtern and views.. This year I've written far less and hardly promoted what I've done but I am still on target to reach my writing goals.

I've looked at Kyle's writing before which is very different from mine and although I took his advice and shortened my paragraphs and used more bullet points and headings - I have not tried to copy his specfic writing style, which is light, informal and pssionate. I'm me and I write more formally and I don't want to copy someone else's style.

So when I had metaphically given myself a kick up the backside, I realised it was a good reminder to me - not to get caught up in a load of negative self-talk, that I should recognise and celebrate my achievements and only use comparisons for postivie inspiration and motivation.

Kyle mentioned in his blog that his long term writing target is to reach 1 million views which I thought was pretty inspirational. He won't know unless he reads this - I fully intend to beat him to it - all in the name of healthy competition. My writing rate has slowed recently and I needed an extra push and this is ideal for me.

And you know I shouldn't be so quick to criticise myself because on the very same day this week I agreed my first paid job as an article writier. Not one of those crappy contracts where you write 500 words for $5 or less but a proper contract in which I set the rate which properly reflects my talent and skills as a writer. See being positive is much more productive than indulging in negative self talk.

I shall use the infographic below as a reminder!