Does Berating Yourself Actually Work as Motivation?

That’s correct and good, but it’s worth noting that there have always been cultures, groups and individuals — sports, the military, fitness freaks, the hyper-successful — who claim that negative self-talk is actually motivating for them in a way positivity can’t touch.

The question is, can that ever be a good thing?

What’s more, many studies Weinberg cites have found that it’s not necessarily bad for performance, either. In a nutshell, more often athletes engage in negative self-talk after they make a critical game error — so it’s a response to poor performance, not a predictor of that performance, Weinberg writes. Another study found that if the negative talk is instructional — telling you what not to do — it’s a roadmap to avoiding an error, and therefore, can increase the odds of success.

Weinberg says the main thing to remember with such talk, from a psychological perspective, is understanding what the point of it is, and so long as it’s facilitating the desired outcome, it could be considered useful.

Duke says it’s not that simple. “It works at a significant cost. It can have long-term negative consequences to self-esteem and self-image. Once the behavior is changed, many struggle to part with the shaming inner-voice that they’ve developed even when it’s no longer needed, as in the case of the majority of those who struggle with anorexia and related disorders.”

For that reason, she explains, therapists would advocate self-love, visualization and positive reinforcement as motivators to replace the negativity. The good news is, those work too, are less likely to mess with your relationships and they don’t leave you hating yourself for your mistakes forever.

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