Excuse me; have you met your inner you? That is right. Each of us has an inner you. It is that voice you hear in your head. For me, it manifests itself when I am about to do something I know in my heart that is so wrong. This voice is actually quite a powerful persuader.

Over the years, almost all my battles around the topic of weight were fought with that inner me. Should I have that piece of cheesecake? Should I be true to my diet? I knew the right answers. Unfortunately, I almost always yielded to that little voice that said, “It’s only a small piece of cake. You can splurge today and diet tomorrow. It will make no difference.”

In 2008 I made a definite change in my life. Weight loss surgery laid the foundation. Most important, I knew I had to change my behavior and lifestyle. It was that simple…NOT! Challenging that inner me was the hardest change I had to make. It continues to be a challenge four years after surgery.

Now, let’s talk about interviewing your inner self. If you are in a position to hire a new employee, you assess if the employee is the right fit. I like to use behavior interviewing to identify if the person has the right behavioral traits and characteristics to succeed on the job. I ask candidates to share how something they did in the past helped them and their employer succeed. It tells quite about the quality of the prospective employee.

When your inner self is in full sales mode, it is time to ask it some important questions. How did this action work out in the past? Did you succeed as a result? Bad choices surface quickly. The more uncertain you are, the more you need to dig into how this bad behavior will affect you. Making the discussion with your inner self a two-way street is key in not accepting the inner voice at face value.

Interviewing yourself may seem awkward. As you can tell by the themes in my blog, I am quite taken by motivational speakers and personalities. I like this type of positive reinforcement. If you want to be a better self-interviewer, a good place to start is to reflect on a motivational statement, blog post, article or book.

I am a fan of Marc and Angel Hack Life (Practical Tips for Productive Living), a motivational web site where Marc and Angel share their personal thoughts on life, living, health, work and a variety of other topics. A technique they use that I very much like is their posting of lists to ponder in living your life. These lists are a great place to start that inner conversation with your self. They are generally very open ended with the list items briefly described by Marc and Angel.

This past week, Marc and Angel posted 10 Enemies of Personal Greatness. I am posting the list below for your reference. Visit the web site to read Marc and Angel’s insights on the list. Take some free time in the next few days to ponder these items. Use it as a learning experience on interviewing your inner self. Subscribe to their blog and challenge yourself with each of their new posts. Once you know your inner self, you will know the real you.

Marc and Angel’s 10 Enemies of Personal Greatness

1. Always taking the path of least resistance.
2. Comparing yourself to everyone else.
3. Worrying too much about what others think of you.
4. Ignoring your gut instincts.
5. Holding on when you need to move on.
6. Living in the past.
7. Doing the wrong things just because others are too.
8. Allowing small problems to overwhelm you.
9. Surrendering to the draw of comfort.
10. NOT believing that you CAN.