The internal voice or ‘chatter in the head’ has long been identified as a source of influence on the successful completion of goals. More often than not the ‘voice in the head’ is viewed as an obstacle to success since it seems frequently to undermine confidence and challenge our ability to undertake the goals and challenges that we aspire towards. Quite a lot has been written about the power of affirmations and positive statements as a way to rewrite the voice in the head ‘tapes’ so that they are more supportive of what we might be trying to accomplish.

Now it seems that there might be a bit more to it...

Recent research1 at the University of Illinois investigated the impact of positive affirmation self statements, and the findings indicate that self questions may have more influence in building motivation and commitment to goal achievement than self statements!

In experiments conducted by Professor Dolores Albarracin , participants , prior to undertaking a simple word puzzle task were required to either spend 1 minute wondering whether they would complete a task or telling themselves they would. Participants showed more success on tasks when they asked themselves whether they would complete it than when they told themselves they would. Similar results were confirmed in follow up experiments.

"We are turning our attention to the scientific study of how language affects self-regulation," Professor Albarracin said. "Experimental methods are allowing us to investigate people's inner speech, of both the explicit and implicit variety, and how what they say to themselves shapes the course of their behaviors."

"The popular idea is that self-affirmations enhance people's ability to meet their goals," Professor Albarracin said. "It seems, however, that when it comes to performing a specific behavior, asking questions is a more promising way of achieving your objectives."

All this seems to add further to the mystery and the impact of questions, both those posed to us by others and those we ask ourselves. We know that the questions we ask have a powerful role to play in moving those we coach towards new insights and new actions, now it seems that the unspoken, internalised questions people ask of themselves have an impact as well. All the more reason to keep building our repertoire of incisive and thought-shifting questions!

Happy coaching
John Campbell

1University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2010, June 1). Will we succeed? The science of self- motivation. Science Daily. Retrieved September 7, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100528092021.htm