Nervous about a big presentation, interview, or a game coming up? Don’t let your negative inner voice sabotage your dreams.

Use these tips to talk yourself up before a challenge:

1. Remind Yourself of Past Hurdles

As an adult, you’ve likely been through several hurdles in life. Think about all the times where you thought you couldn’t do something, but got yourself together and did it anyway. What about all the moments where it looked like you’re never going to get past your sadness, but managed to pick yourself back up.

We go through many moments in life where we think we’ve been broken; however, we find it within ourselves to gather the broken pieces and keep pushing forward.

Humans are naturally resilient; we’ve lived through wars, natural disasters, poverty, etc. and have learned to adjust to our circumstances and find a way out.

From Oprah Winfrey to Leonardo DiCaprio, so many of the world’s most successful people came from nothing.

If you look back at all the times you overcame fear, you’ll realize that you have it in you to succeed, now you just have to gather the strength.

2. Know Your Strengths

We get so caught up in all the things we “can’t do” that we often overlook our strengths. Sometimes it helps to remind yourself of all the things you’re awesome at.

No matter how small or big it is, it’s something you do well, and it matters.

The next time you hear the negative inner voice in your head, hush it by reminding yourself of your strengths. It’ll help you realize you have what it takes to take on the challenges the world throws at you.

3. Envision Victory

If you’ve ever taken an NLP course or read up on NLP techniques, you would have learned about the power of envisioning a positive outcome.

According to NLP practices, imagining positive outcomes helps prepare your mind for success. It gets easier to block negative energy when you’ve seen yourself on the other side.

As an international athlete, I know all about talking yourself up before a challenge. I also know the amount of work required to come out on top.

I have had my share of setbacks. So many people told me to choose another path and give up on my dreams of representing Ghana in the Olympics, but I knew that I had it in me. I had to make the switch from being a sprinter to an Olympic skeleton racer, but I’m still the Hope for a Billion African people, and I’m going to do everything in my power to win Africa’s first winter Olympic Games medal.

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