Metacognition: WTF is that?

What is metacognition?

It’s thinking about your thinking. It’s questioning assumptions.

It high-level thinking and something we should all be doing.

It’s an essential tool to evaluate your inner monologue as well as creative business opportunities. 

Sabotaging self-talk

Our inner monologue can be brutal. We wouldn’t speak to anyone else in the same manner that we address ourselves. 

We beat ourselves up and hold ourselves to impossibly high standards. 

“You’re an idiot” “ You always fail” 

But are these statements actually true? Of course not.

Everybody fails and makes mistakes but not all the time. Your self-talk is a gross exaggeration of the truth at best.

At worst, it’s complete and utter bullshit. 

And it’s holding you back. It’s stopping you from taking risks and pushing boundaries.

That’s what the ego does. It puts you down to stop you from trying. 

People believe in their self-talk. 

They think it’s their voice but it’s not. Self-talk is ego.

It’s often the voice of a parent or teacher that has berated you in the past. These things stick.

Journal

I would encourage you to start a self-talk journal and write down your negative thoughts. Or get a good coach.

You will soon discover patterns. Your self-talk is ego manifestations over your insecurities but it’s not true.

I’ve written about Victoria Pendleton before. 

She is a former world record holder and gold winning Olympic cyclist. 

She struggled with her self-sabotaging self-talk. Her confidence was so low she started self-harming and came in 9th in the 2004 Olympics. 

But, then, everything changed. 

She got a new sports psychologist, Dr. Steve Peters.

He taught Victoria to control her self talk with thought stopping

It changed everything. Victoria won two gold medals and broke world records in the 2008 Olympics.

Same athlete, same training, different mindset. 

Business

Metacognition is also an important and creative business tool. 

Our minds focus too much on assumptions. Assumptions in the gaps in the markets, what our audience really wants and needs, and so on. 

Without questioning our thinking we can’t be sure we’re making the correct decisions.

As solopreneurs, it’s difficult as we don’t have anyone else to bounce ideas off. We’re on our own. Our self-talk and thoughts become an echo chamber. 

We need to have meetings with ourselves. I know that sounds weird.

But thinking about your thinking is exactly that. It’s questioning the validity and quality of your thinking. 

12 Questions to Improve metacognition

Planning phase

Is this similar to previous tasks? 

What do I want to achieve? 

What should I do first?

Evaluation phase

What are my strengths?

What are my weaknesses?

What have been previous blind spots?

Monitoring phase

Am I on the right track?

What can I do differently?

Who can I ask?

Evaluating Phase

What worked well? 

What could I have done better?

Can I apply this to other situations?

Summary

• Your self-talk is not you
• Ego will put you down in order to keep you safe in your comfort zone.

• If you’re not feeling imposter syndrome; you’re not challenging yourself.

• Always question your business assumptions. 

• Block off time in your diary to have a meeting with yourself. 

• Spend time thinking about your thinking.

• Is that really true? This is the most important question to ask yourself.

Interested in 1-2-1 Coaching/ Consulting?

I help creators and solopreneurs become famous in their niches. I specialise in:

• Creative business strategy
  
• Standing out in saturated markets
  
• Overcoming creative blocks that are holding you back
  
• Building audiences. 
  

I do a discovery call. Cost? $0.00 Commitment? Zero. Time? 30 minutes

More info? Go here

A bit about me

I’m an ex- multi-platinum artist manager. I created strategies and built audiences for artists who sold millions. I’ve challenged myself to write 50 articles in 50 working days. 30 down, 20 to go.

You can read more in the archives here. Find out more information on my website or connect on my LinkedIn

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