Dealing with your demons

As soon as you wake up in the morning, you have one of two choices.

You can either decide to attack the day with vigour or allow temptation to poke holes in all your hard-earned progress.

All week I’ve been plagued with pesky voices inside my head — no, not the crazy ones — telling me things like; “Take a day off”, “Do the bare minimum” or “It’s ok to start again tomorrow” and at times, I’ve almost been seduced by their charm — those sneaky little bastards can be quite convincing when they want to be.

However, I’m happy to say, discipline prevailed and anytime a spate of mental resistance was presented, I managed to stay strong — even today, Friday, a day where most people wind down, kick back and prepare to switch off over the weekend, I forced myself to sit down and do some writing. Go me!

Human beings will always have a hankering to slack off, it’s in our nature. But when such habits come a-knocking, never fear, for there are ways to fight back and avoid succumbing to this weakness.

When you hear those devious devils begin to chatter, whispering sweet nothings in your ear, it’s up to you to act fast in order to stifle their allure.

First, you must remain headstrong, stubborn to the pleas of procrastination. Tell yourself, “NO! It’s NOT HAPPENING this time! I WILL NOT give in!”

Then, without even a glimpse of a second thought, it’s time to take action.

For example;

Say your demons are urging you to take a day off from writing — which mine has been all week — taking action could mean pulling out your phone immediately and start writing a few rough paragraphs of your latest piece on a writing app — I use the Medium app for that — or start brainstorming some new article ideas. Anything to disengage your negative mindset and direct focus towards what matters.

By not entertaining these paralysing thoughts for long or allowing them to gain traction, you’re breaking free from their hypnotic enticement and building upon your willpower and self-discipline to succeed.

Of course, there will be days when you slip up, fall short and submit to your mind’s cruel games.

But with enough time, patience and practice, you’ll soon become stronger and wiser to your negative traits, giving you the ability to stamp that shit out a lot sooner, leaving you free to keep striving for greatness.

Thanks for reading.