Quiet the negative voices and spotlight the positive voices

- Has this happened to you? You see your dream job is hiring and when you read the job description mwaah, it's a match made in heaven. Even better, you know hiring manager in the department. Then you hear the voice of your high school English teacher with her red pen in hand saying, "your resume is all wrong, you must start from scratch." Her voice is overtaken by your well-intentioned parents who hoping to minimize your risk of rejection, share all of the reasons it doesn't make sense for you to apply for this highly competitive role in a tough economy. Then in come the voices of your kids, the dryer repairman, your son's college admissions officer and well, before you know it you're saying, "I can't do this right now, I'm way too busy." Sound familiar? It should. We're all human. These critical voices are saboteurs keeping you from getting yourself out there. Simply put, these voices are thought patterns that have become habit loops in your mind, and they have you stuck. You can choose to control these voices and I'm going to show you how. The first step is awareness. It begins with recognizing that your mind won't stop. Fear is here and it's running you. The second step is to turn the volume up on these voices and how they control you, giving them a persona can help. Generally, your voices will fall into these categories. The perfectionist, that's the English teacher, the hider, those where you're well-intentioned parents and the pleaser slash performer, that's you juggling, the repairman, the kids and everything else that goes on in your life. The persona you give each voice will be unique to you and knowing each voice, when it speaks up, will give you the power to separate from it. The third step is interrupt the voices. You control the volume on these voices and you can turn it down. And I'm going to show you a little trick called ABC. A is awareness. My English teacher's voice is running me. B, get in your body and out of your head pull awareness from your english teacher's voice to your breath and C is count. So you're going to breathe in one, two, three, four, five and breathe out six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and then just feel your feet on the floor. Your hands in your lap, do this for a couple of rounds until you feel yourself reset. The fourth step is push. Once you've quieted those voices, it's time to embrace that awkward space of discomfort. Editing your resume, making a networking call and publishing your LinkedIn profile may not be easy or familiar, but they are essential for job seeking success. They're also a vulnerability minefield. You should use a mantra here such as this is awkward and uncomfortable, and I'm doing it anyway. This push is what will move you forward through what's difficult. And the fifth step is praise yourself. And I'm not kidding here. This is not hokey, it's not a joke. Replacing these critical voices with powerful voices of praise, can change the game. It can also help combat against the scientific fact that our brains are hardwired for negativity. Praise is you sending soldiers to forge new neural pathways built for positivity. If praising yourself feels unnatural, try this hack, ask yourself, what would I say to my best friend if their dream job came calling and they were having a hard time believing in themselves? Use this tactic anytime you need to pull a little praise out of your back pocket. By replacing negative voices with positive ones, you'll nail that resume, make that call and get that interview.