"Relentless, repetitive self talk is what changes our self-image"
About this Quote
The subtext is slightly harder-edged than it looks. If your self-image is shaped by nonstop inner narration, then you’re always being “worked on” by something: your habits, your anxieties, your social media scroll, your childhood scripts. Waitley’s counsel is essentially: seize the microphone before someone else does. It’s empowerment, but also a warning that the default voice in your head might be an untrained, hostile narrator.
Context matters: Waitley emerged from the late-20th-century American self-help and motivational circuit, where psychology, salesmanship, and performance culture blended into a single vernacular of “programming” the mind. The phrasing echoes cognitive-behavioral ideas popularized for mass audiences: thoughts feed feelings, feelings feed actions, actions reinforce identity. The genius of the sentence is its blunt causality. No mysticism, no destiny, just a loop. It works because it shifts change from an abstract aspiration (“be more confident”) into a repeatable practice, while quietly acknowledging the uncomfortable truth: your identity is, to a large extent, the story you keep telling yourself until you can’t imagine any other one.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Improvement |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Waitley, Denis. (2026, January 17). Relentless, repetitive self talk is what changes our self-image. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/relentless-repetitive-self-talk-is-what-changes-43401/
Chicago Style
Waitley, Denis. "Relentless, repetitive self talk is what changes our self-image." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/relentless-repetitive-self-talk-is-what-changes-43401/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Relentless, repetitive self talk is what changes our self-image." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/relentless-repetitive-self-talk-is-what-changes-43401/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.











