Negative Self-Talk May Be a Sign of Indecision |
Famously, Arnold Schwarzenegger chastised himself after winning a major bodybuilding competition. The blazing light of glory quickly faded into shame, and was seldom allowed to shine for long. Staring at himself in the mirror, Schwarzenegger called himself a slob and worthless; he told himself that he should feel embarrassed by his body. Recounting these moments in later years, Schwarzenegger spoke of his self-talk as a strategy, a way to maintain motivation despite the seemingly endless stream of success. While his framing wasn’t technically wrong, since he was engaging in a technique labeled "defensive pessimism" in which expectations are kept low to self-motivate, it overlooked a key fact: Much of this is automatic, habitual, and unconscious. Most of the people who engage in this sort of self-talk take it so seriously that they don’t perceive it as a tool. It can easily ruin lives.
Schwarzenegger was obsessed with greatness, knowing how thin the air was up there. And he sacrificed much of his personal life, and emotional well-being, to attain and sustain it. However, many