The Big Answer

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Helmstetter’s book, The Self-Talk Solution, helps you look at the self-talk you have and are using, and it helps you make positive changes in self-talk you do in the future. He points out that 75% of past programming by parents and teachers is negative and that each of us has to take the responsibility to reprogram ourselves—via good self-talk—in order to overcome the negative effects of this programming. He stresses choice to overcome the determinism of past programs. One either listens to the past programming self-talk and becomes a loser or one takes charge of one’s life and takes steps to get beyond being at effect and becomes a winner.

Like Louise Hart (On the Wings of Self-Esteem), he sees how self-esteem can be enhanced by changing self-talk from negative to positive. Self-talk is a widely accepted tool for self-esteem enhancement, and Helmstetter is the most widely read self-talk expert. His methods could be improved by adding wisdom from Dr. John Pollard’s Self Parenting, which acknowledges that it’s not only important that you get good self-talk—it’s also important that if you feel unloved (because of emotional needs not being filled very well when you were growing up) that you learn to nurture yourself so you don’t have to unconsciously approach every situation needfully.