Serena Williams: The Power Of Positive Self-Talk

When you look at Serena Williams, you see an amazing looking athlete. She is extremely fit and muscular. She regularly out-powers her opponents, and according to most experts, Williams has the greatest serve of all time.

Serena Williams: The Power Of Positive Self-Talk

Under appreciated, however, is her supreme mental toughness. And one of her key mental toughness weapons is her positive self-talk.

A wonderful example of her self-talk process happened when Williams was playing doubles with her sister Venus Williams. They have won 21 titles together, but on this afternoon, they were losing decisively. They needed to grind it out to win this match but Venus was not particularly focused and looked despondent about their chances of winning.

Usually during a changeover, the sisters talked about anything from movies to shopping, but during this changeover, Serena Williams gave her older sister an earful. She said, “Listen, I don’t care what you do on your side of the court, but I’m not going to miss on my side. We will not lose this match.”

Then Serena Williams went on to say, “Look, Venus, no matter how you feel about your game, you have to show up at the court, right? You have a choice about whether you want to compete well or compete badly. I’m going to make the choice to compete well. Why don’t you do that, too!”

All champions use positive self-talk. They routinely pump themselves up with the right words at the right time. Serena Williams talks herself and everyone around her into a winning mentality. Here are two key methods to help you talk yourself into becoming a champion in your field:

1. Develop a Best Friend’s Journal. Get a small notebook and call it your best friend’s journal. At the start of every day, write one positive self-statement like:

I have great confidence today.
I have great energy today.
I will connect with my clients today.
I will have a great attitude today.

But do more than just write one positive statement, reread them over and over again. Then, when the pressure hits, your habit will be to talk yourself into greatness — just like Serena.

2. Snap out of it. Get a rubber band and wrap it around your wrist. Every time you say something negative, snap it. Then replace the negative thought with a positive self-statement. Over time, you will find your negativity diminishes while your positivity increases. You can keep wearing the rubber band for a fashion statement, if you wish.

There is a reason why greatness happens. And it all starts with positive self-talk.

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