We all have those moments of "This sucks", "Why am I doing this?", "This month is a waste", "Maybe I should just quit". It's human nature to doubt ourselves. Even the Dalai Lama has an internal negative nellie. I'd be willing tobet on it. 

In those moments of self doubt, what do you do? Do you push through those feelings? Do you swallow them? Do you go into a co-worker's office and vent? 

Personally, I struggle with Negative Nellie a lot. It's like Nellie and I are married and on the verge of a divorce, but I just keep staying for whatever reason. It's quite an abusive relationship.

When Nellie decides to speak up, I often listen. For a moment, a split second even, I believe what Nellie is telling me. "Quit, Katie. You're not good enough. You don't  have the most Twitter followers. You're not leading your clients into epic money making ventures. Who do you think you are?"

For a long time, it was comments like these that would make me give up whenever the going got tough. Over the years, I've failed. A lot. I had tough months in the Automotive Business where I only set 50 appointments, and only 10 of those appointments bought cars. 

My very first manager in the automotive business came to me on the last day of March 2007 and said "Katie, you had a bad month."  "I know," I replied "I don't know what happened." He didn't say much more, and walked away.

The next day he came in and said "Katie, last month is last month. You can't get it back. But you have thirty days to make this an amazing month. If you want it, you'll get it."

Throughout that month I had good days and bad days. It was April 2007, and it was tax season. No matter how Negative my internal Nellie was, I kept what my boss said in mind "If you want it, you'll get it." A boy, did I want it.

Negative Nellie came to me about 50 times that month. And each time, I told Nellie to Shut Up. Out loud. Or, on paper. I'd put those pieces of paper into an empty drawer and whenever I'd get a Nellie Attack, I'd write SHUT UP on another piece of paper and add it to the drawer. On the other side of the paper I put inspirational little things like "Go for it" and "You've got this", and "Keep going." I found myself opening that drawer often, and flipping over all of the "Shut Ups" to the inspirational sides. I called 'em "Positive Petey's"

It seems incredibly cheesy, and I understand that. But Negative Nellie can be quite a buzz kill. It's failure fuel. In order to stop that negative self-talk from happening, an intervention needed to be initiated.

To this day, I have a Negative Nellie / Positive Petey drawer. When I'm at work, and I know someone it having a bad day, I make sure I say something like "Negative Nellie got you?" When they reply "Yes", I hold up a "SHUT UP" paper, they laugh, and then I flip it over to the inspirational side, and they smile.

Smiles, Laughs, Determination, Dedication, and Perseverance = Negative Nellie Kryptonite. Oh, and that April in 2007? I set 150 appointments. 100 of them bought cars. It was a record setting month for the entire dealership.

What do YOU do to shut your Negative Nellie up? I'd love to hear other thoughts on this.