Gremlins

Here is a recent letter from a reader.

 

First I really love your book. Thank you for writing it!

I completely understood what you said about following your dreams.  I was so inspired that I immediately starting putting plans together in my mind about my next career move.  I started envisioning the steps I needed to take, the classes I would register for to help brush up on my knowledge and how I was going to build muscle in the skill areas I'm weakest. 

Then, 3 days later... I was defeated by my own mind.  I managed to tear holes in everything I was excited about.  It's like there is a gremlin in my mind that is hell bent on making sure I remember how unskilled I am. 

Have you every had a gremlin like mine?  If so, how did you go about fighting your gremlin and keeping negative thoughts out of your mind.

Thank you in advance for your insight.

Sincerely,
Lost in my head

 

Hello Lost in my head!

 

Thank you for writing in. This is a great topic. We can all relate to what you said. Its so easy to take that important dream and rip it apart before we even take 1 step toward following it. We know we are doing it. We know we shouldn't do it. Yet by the end of the day, the dream is squashed.

 

I believe there are a few factors why we do this. But today I'm going to focus on one aspect. Another name for the "Gremlin" is the Ego. Our ego gets in the way.

 

Think about the questions you ask yourself when you start to rip that dream or goal apart. Think about those negative thoughts. Are they things like, I don't know what I'm doing. I'll never be able to pull this off. What if I fail? What if it doesn't work?

 

What if it doesn't work? What if you do fail? What does that really do to you? Chances are good, it will hurt your ego. You don't want to look foolish or stupid. You don't want to look like you don't know what you are doing.

 

So you just won't do anything. No one will ever know you can't do it, including yourself.

 

When the negative thoughts pop in your mind the next question should be "What does that really mean?"

 

What if I fail at starting my own business? I'll be a failure, you tell yourself.

 

Then what? What does that really mean? You made an attempt at something that didn't work. Maybe you learn from it and succeed next time. Or maybe you say, this isn't for me after all.

 

But what really got hurt here? Your feelings, your ego?

 

I've talked previously about how we are in charge of our own weather. We choose how we act / react to things, people, etc. So here we are again. Are we going to let our reaction or our own ego stop us from moving forward in life, for achieving our goals?

 

Next time you find yourself walking away from a dream, I ask you, dig a little deeper. Get past the negative talk and ask, what really is going to be hurt here?

 

If it's your ego, then press on.

 

"The greatest danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." --Michelangelo