The title here is one of my three favorite bumper stickers. The others, for the record, are, “Keep honking–I’m Reloading!” and “In spite of the high cost of living, it remains popular!”

The voices in my head bumper sticker is special to me because there really is great truth in it. We all have voices in our heads, all the time, directing us this way and that, controlling our moods, our behavior, our opinion of ourself, the depth of our commitments, and even the effort we put into tasks at hand. In recovery groups, folks who have trouble keeping their thinking straight often refer to the “committee meeting going on in my head.” We are of course actually talking about strong thoughts, not real audible voices.

The key to being successful is to make sure the voice in your head is giving you a positive message. Let me give you an example. This afternoon I was doing an exercise on a revolving stair machine called a Stepmill. Don’t confuse the Stepmill with a stairmaster or an elliptical. A stepmill is as close to climbing real flights of stairs as you can get, and if you have the level cranked up at all, the exercise can get really brutal. I was going for 20 minutes, but aabout 8 minutes in, the voice in my head starts saying, “your back is killing you, why don’t you just get in 10 minutes and call it a day?” At ten minutes, it was saying, “you don’t really have time to do 20 minutes–you’re going to be late for dinner again!” Who was that voice exactly? It was my whiny, tired little self who had put in a really long day today, and who really was having back problems that didn’t make the exercise pleasant.

At 12 minutes, I had just about had it with this pathetic voice, so I reached back into my memory and stole a phrase from Porter Freeman and modified it slightly. I said to myself, out loud I think, “look, this is going down whether you like it or not, and I’m not quitting. They may have to carry me out of here, up those twenty steps, but I’m not quitting, so just SHUT UP!” I know how dumb that sounds, I really do, but guess what? The stupid whiny voice gave up, and by minute 15 the only voice in my head was saying, “keep it up, baby, you’re almost there!”

How do you control the voices in your head? Start by thinking positive thoughts BEFORE you go to an exercise session or into a particularly stressful day. My thoughts on a given day are focused in the morning by praying for the special needs of several people, by just thanking God for every gift, even those I really don’t want, and by asking for the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. I also try to read and memorize positive things. One of those that made the difference for me today was Porter Freeman’s statement that he was either going to “do this or else they’ll find me dead in there” (referring to the health club where he worked out at 3:30 in the morning!)

Your negative voices hate success, so that’s another great way to shut them up–just by proving them wrong. Do the next right thing in front of you, no matter what that whiny voice is saying, and soon enough, it will die of neglect! God bless!