Our mind is an incredibly complex assimilation of components. At its best our mind, through its sensory, perceptive and cognitive functions, can be our most supportive ally. Our mind can create elaborate goals. It can then help to direct our focus to those items that are critical to the achievement of these goals. It can also soothe our anxious nerves and calm our system when it becomes stressed and overwhelmed. These are all processes we have introduced and discussed in previous articles.
However, it should be noted that this same sensing, perceiving and cognitive system of operations can also work against us. It can keep us teetering on the edge. It can create a heightened sense of urgency and perpetually prepare our physical body for fight or flight. In this state, our mind seeks out those items that will interfere with our goals, our success and our ability to learn and integrate new and innovative opportunities into our life.
Shirzad Chamine in his New York Times best seller, Positive Intelligence, calls these interfering characteristics ‘the Saboteurs’. They are the various descriptors and strategies that we develop often in childhood. They become our negative internal voices and sneaky little habits that hold us back. Shirzad has tested these saboteurs with over 500,000 of his program participants. It seems that our saboteurs tend to appear as soon as we make a commitment to change, take a step out of our comfort zone or try to stretch ourselves. This makes sense if you have ever decided to lose ten pounds, or take up a new activity. The process of doing these new tasks becomes unexpectedly challenging.
These ‘Saboteurs’ are a normal part of the human condition. Their original purpose may have been to keep us safe in a jungle or an unfamiliar landscape. However, in todays fast paced society new experiences arise regularly. We cannot allow our self-limiting patterns to inhibit us to the point where we feel too overwhelmed to move forward. These patterns of self-sabotage interfere with being who we want to be and doing what we want to do. Consequently they also prevent us from having what we want to have in life. They are why opportunities are missed and reaching our full potential begins to seem impossible.
How then do we deal with these saboteurs? The first step is simply to recognize their existence. Do any of these characters sound familiar to you? Have you heard the Judge Saboteur pronounce her sentence? ‘You will never be able to manage that job.’ Or perhaps you hear the Hyper-Achiever Saboteur denounce your efforts as ‘not being good enough’. Could the Victim Saboteur play a role in your life? Do you hear an inner commentary that sounds like this; ‘why does this always happen to me?’ These are just a few of the 10 potential Saboteurs that we struggle to overcome.
Thankfully, there is a Self-Saboteur Assessment that is easy to access. Once complete we can identify quickly and simply who the primary Saboteurs are for each of us. When we know which saboteurs we are dealing with, we can devise a plan that will help us to recognize the voices that hold us back from taking the actions we require to master new habits and achieve our goals. We can quiet that part of our mind that sabotages our efforts. This works best when we also begin to strengthen that part of the brain that serves us.
Are tired of listening to those negative internal voices? Are you ready to say good-bye to your saboteurs so that you can improve your performance, your sense of well-being, and the quality of your relationships? If you would like to learn how to eliminate old outdated internal patterns of self-sabotage so that you can live a life of your choosing, please call or use the link below to book a 30 minute phone call with Simone Usselman-Tod.
Stress Management and Mindset Breakthrough Coach, Certified NeuroChange and NLP Master Practitioner and Coach. https://simoneusselmantod.com/book/
