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Have you ever noticed how your inner voice sounds? We all have one. It talks to us all day. Most of us are aware of what we say to ourselves: “I am starving, I deserve that extra scoop of ice cream, I can do this, I really messed that up or I am so bad at this”.

But are you aware of how you talk to yourself and what your inner voice sounds like? Sports psychology has long trained athletes to use specific phrases at key moments to help them focus on maximising their performance and avoiding confidence sapping self-doubt.

Communication and relationship research research has found tone of voice has a significant impact on the meaning of the message we communicate, in some cases much more than our words.

Research has now also shown how we talk to ourselves, and the tone of voice we use in our minds, makes a big difference to the message we give ourselves and in particular on our levels of confidence.

Getting projects done requires overcoming challenges, and that takes confidence, resilience and the ability to learn fast.

In this article, I'll share how you can use "The James Bond Rule" and other neuroscience hacks to master your inner monologue and boost your ability to get more projects done.

Why is self-talk important?

Self-talk is a key component in sports psychology. Studies have shown that athletes who think and talk to themselves about being successful perform better.

The goal of managing self-talk for athletes is to replace negative inner thinking with more positive messages that provide confidence and focus.

For instance, a downhill snow skier preparing to leave the gates at the top of a mountain should never tell him or herself, “I’m not going to make down without falling.”

If athletes have negative thoughts when competing, sports psychology trains them to replace these thoughts with positive self-affirming ones such as: “I’ve done this dozens of times before in training” or “focus on one gate at a time.”

Using word replacement strategies calms nerves and provides the mind with a familiar path that promotes confidence and improves performance.

Why is tone of voice important in how we communicate?

There's considerable research into the importance of communication in relationships. How we speak to others we care about matters. And over time, this can have either a positive effect, helping build a stronger bond with someone or the opposite contributing to it falling apart.

Researchers from the University of Southern California used computer algorithms from over 100 couples therapy sessions over two years and found tone of voice between couples was a better predictor of relationship success than counselling professionals.

Computer analysis of tone of voice used by couples speaking to each other was accurate 74% of the time when predicting an improvement or deterioration in the relationship.

Now we can't break up with ourselves, but what this research shows is that the tone of voice we use has an impact on the people we care about most.

So it makes sense it would have an impact on how it makes ourselves feel.

How does tone of voice we use in our minds affect us?

Research has now confirmed this theory. Melina Vicario a neuroscientist, biohacker and expert in neurolinguistic programming who studied at Stanford University observed that the type of voice we use in our minds does have an impact on our confidence. In particular how we speak to ourselves when we say something positive.

In a podcast interview with Jim Kwik, Melina says: “[in our minds] when we say something useful to ourselves we say it with such doubt … and then when we say something that is bad to us, something that does not align with our desired destiny, we say it with such conviction”.

In her research she found our internal tone of voice typically has an upwards inflection when we speak positively and a downwards inflection when we speak negatively about ourselves.

An upwards inflection, or high-rising terminal (HRT), is the act of raising your voice at the end of a sentence to make the statement sound like a question. Australians are well known to use voice trait.

Practice this for a minute to yourself. Say this sentence with a rising voice at the end:

“I have everything I need to get this work done.”

It sounds more like a question than a statement doesn’t it when the sentence is higher pitched at the end? It doesn’t sound very convincing or confident because a question creates doubt.

Now say it with a lower pitched voice or downwards inflection at the end, like James Bond would do when he famously introduces himself as: “Bond, James Bond”.

Much more confident and certain isn’t it? Imagine if James Bond introduced himself using an upwards inflection? You wouldn’t feel too confident he’d be able to protect you from the bad guys.

A survey of 700 men and women in managerial roles conducted by UK publisher Pearson found 85% believed having an upwards or rising pitch at the end of sentences is a clear indicator of insecurity. Insecurity in our voice tends to come across as lacking confidence.

Why this matters is that our subconscious is always listening to what we say about ourselves and if we are using a tone of voice and language this is not convincing to ourselves, then we are unnecessarily robbing ourselves of confidence.

How should we speak to ourselves?

To overcome this, Melina suggests we adopt “The James Bond Rule” to stop the language and tone of voice we use from stealing our mojo.

Her suggestion is that when we want to talk about ourselves in a positive way we use a downward inflection, like James Bond uses when introducing himself. This will project more certainty and confidence in what we say. The more we are mindful and practice this, the greater our confidence becomes.

What other ways can we master self talk to help us learn faster and accomplish more?

There’s more to mastering self talk than what we say and how we say it. A review of more than two dozen studies, published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, found that there’s another kind of mental messaging that fast tracks learning, called “instructional self-talk.”

This is the kind of running commentary we have when we’re carrying out a difficult task, especially one that’s unfamiliar. Think about when you were first learning to ride a bike. Your self-talk might have gone something like this: “Hold the handlebars, keep peddling, look ahead, remember to squeeze the brakes to stop…”

A study by Athanasios Kolovelonis at the University of Thessaly in Greece revealed that incorporating self-talk into a continuous process of thinking and doing produced the greatest learning gains.

Instructional self-talk begins with planning, where you establish goals and devise strategies to achieve them. Next, comes performance, where you implement the plan to the best of your capabilities.

Lastly, self-reflection occurs, where you assess your actions and make changes for next time.

As your experience grows, giving yourself instructions becomes unnecessary — but while you’re learning, instructional self-talk does three important things:

• It amplifies your attention, focusing you on the important elements of the task and removing distractions.

• It helps you make decisions about what to do, how to do it, and when to do it, and

• It allows you to control your reactions, so you’re more able to stay on task.

Our self-talk plays an important role in how we focus our minds. Hacks for your inner monologue, like The James Bond Rule and instructional self-talk, can provide you with confidence to help overcome challenges, learn faster and get more projects done.

Give The James Bond Rule and instructional self-talk strategies a try and let me know how you go.

At ThinkClear Group we help people in corporate roles excel at delivering projects. A key feature of our training is how to optimise your mindset.

If you’re looking to level up your project delivery skills and fast track your career, click here -> to book a free discovery session today.