The Sage and the Saboteurs
That Time I Caught My Inner Voices Fighting
BUSTED!
Did you know there’s a name for all those voices in your head that keep poking you just when you’re starting to feel good about yourself?
You know the ones…
“Are you sure you want to wear that? It might be too flashy…or maybe not flashy enough!”
Or maybe yours is more like this:
“You could probably get that article written even better if you just hold off on publishing and give it one more edit.”
Or maybe like this?
“If they’d just do it the way I told them, it would work and we wouldn’t be having this problem!”
They’re called Saboteurs, or Gremlins
We’ve all got them, and it helps to call them out by name when you see their little faces. They are NOT your friends.
- Pleaser
- Hyper-Vigilant
- Controller
- Avoider
- Stickler
- Hyper-Achiever
- Restless
- Victim
- Hyper-Rational
They pop up when we’re tired or stressed or about to do something new and a little butterflies-in-the-stomach exciting or scary. They’re the voices that keep us up at night, and hold us back from doing anything ‘too’ challenging.
Their one and only job: To keep us SAFE
Believe it or not, it is possible to lower the volume on these voices
I’m happy to speak from experience and say that when you do, there’s another voice beneath them. Shirzad Chamine likes to refer to it as The Inner Sage or The Jedi Master.
It’s that quiet little voice, way in the background, so tiny sometimes that it’s easy to miss. But it’s always there, ready to comfort, inspire or be a cheerleader, given half a chance.
I’ll be talking more about this in future articles. But for now, here’s a fun entry I wrote a couple weeks ago in my personal journal.
I was feeling anxious earlier today at the thought of working on something creative (a Medium article) that I needed to finish. I felt unpleasant Avoider vibes.
I did a few quick intervention breaths and felt better, but then noticed I was anxious AGAIN a few minutes later…
But this time the feeling was critical Hyper-Achiever vibes. Followed up immediately by Avoider again!
I feel like I pulled back the curtain on some epic Kaiju battle going on in the background…
Godzilla trying to take down a huge tetradactyl. The two of them royally messing up the buildings and trees and innocent bystanders of downtown Tokyo. (Otherwise known as my peace of mind!)
They both paused and looked up at me as they realized I was watching them. I had to just laugh! So silly that my saboteurs were actually duking it out in the basement of my mind.
The anxiety disappeared as soon as I did. Reminds me of a scene from Harry Potter!
I pointed my wizard’s wand at them and exclaimed, ‘Ridiculoso!’
Hehe :)
Are you interested in learning about which saboteurs are running your life? There’s a great quiz over here on the Positive Intelligence site. Good stuff. Takes 5 minutes and is really eye opening — I highly recommend!
This piece is in response to Liberty Forrest, Author’s thoughts “This Is Why Shifting Your Perspective Can Change the World.”
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