What do you say when you talk to yourself, and how does that impact how you act and react personally and professionally? This self-talk, whether out loud or silently within your head, can set you up for success or failure.

Here is how it works: You get up in the morning and tell yourself it is going to be "another one of THOSE days" - and it is - because you programmed it that way. You could choose, however, to program your day in a powerful, positive way. You could tell yourself, "I feel great today! I have more energy and vitality than ever!" If you tell yourself often enough, you really will have more energy and vitality than ever. It is simply the way your subconscious brain works - it believes what it hears most often. The strongest message always wins.

Researchers have learned that the human brain operates in many ways like a personal computer. Once information is imprinted on the disk of a computer, the only way to change the information is to erase or replace it - otherwise the computer will keep repeating what you fed into it. The subconscious mind works very much the same way. Information is fed into it through our senses, our thoughts, our impressions, and what we hear from ourselves and others. Once the information is imprinted in our subconscious, the only way to change the habitual repeating of thoughts or behavior is to erase and replace the ineffective messages with new effective messages, and we can do that by changing the way we talk to ourselves.

What you say when you talk to yourself is almost always a message you received from others, and according to behavioral psychologists as much as 77% of self-talk is negative, or works against you. Negative self-talk such as "I'm too shy," or "It's just no use," causes you to doubt, be unsure, worry, and lack confidence.

Positive self-talk gives you strong new messages to help you overcome long-time fears and obstacles - speak more comfortably in front of groups, become more confident around others, and look, act, and feel more in control.

You can replace your negative self-talk with positive self-talk to make dramatic, permanent changes in your life. YOU can make your own self-talk win for you. All you have to do is learn to talk to yourself!

Claudette Keller is a Certified Self Talk Trainer with The Self Talk Institute in Scottsdale, AZ

Based on the best selling book by Dr. Shad Helmstetter: WHAT TO SAY WHEN YOU TALK TO YOURSELF.