Saboteur, inner-critic, the gremlin – call it what you want but we all have them. Them, of course, being the voice inside your head that tells you to play it safe or that you’re unworthy of achieving the life you want.
Take a moment and realize that this voice exists in you. What does it say? How is it holding you back or forcing you to play small in your life? If nothing comes up for you; you’re full of shit. Every single person has it and every single successful person has not only recognized it but also made a conscious choice to ignore it when it serves them to do so. If you’re interested in joining the successful people club, you’re going to have to learn to do the same.
But, before you can choose to ignore anything, you must recognize its existence. If you don’t know what you don’t know, how can you change it? If you aren’t clear on who your saboteur is, where it comes from and what’s it’s telling you to do; how can you choose to ignore it?
A big part of my coaching centers on ruthlessly identifying and bringing color to the saboteur both early on in the engagement and as it adapts (which it will) to the person you are becoming. Just as critical as identifying the voice is for my clients to understand that it is not who they are. Rather, it’s simply a voice in their head and the good news for many of us is that there are also a lot of positive voices inside there as well.
The next time you decide to do something bold, take a step back and determine which voice you need to choose to make it happen.
