What you tell yourself
The sentence you keep repeating about yourself slowly goes looking for evidence.
"I'm lazy," "it never works out for me," "I'm a bad dad" — those aren't descriptions, they're instructions. The brain then collects whatever fits and overlooks the rest. It's not about forcing yourself to say the opposite; it's about catching the sentence and asking whether it's actually true, or just old. Usually it's old.
A question from Seth
What sentence about yourself did you say today, out loud or in your head?