Here is a topic I talk to my all of my clients about. And yes, this is business coaching. This is a secret known to coaches and others who work with people who want to accomplish something. When we want to accomplish something – in business or elsewhere – we often get stopped or stuck. But are we really stuck? There is no mud, no cement. So why do we use this terminology? Sometimes we say we “get in our own way.” Again, what does this mean?
Here is the secret we know – that voice in your head…the one that says you are going to mess up, or you have already messed up or you are just faking it as an attorney, CPA, small business owner, parent…yeah that voice – it’s wrong.
Not only is it wrong, it’s not you. It seems to be there inside you, but it is not you.
It’s a tape, a track that runs and plays and has as its purpose to keep you safe. Its problem is that it feels it needs to protect you from things that are not really a threat to you – public speaking, asking for a raise, reaching for that certification, that new client.
The problem is not that the voice is there. The problem is that you listen to it. It’s that you listen to it as the truth. It’s not the truth. And you can choose to listen to something else. What would you listen to if you didn’t listen to that voice?
There’s so much more I could say about this, but in the end, it’s a habit. When you hear the voice, choose to shift your focus to something else. Anything else. You won’t get rid of it but neither do you have to listen to it.
I had the idea for this post from an unlikely source. I started reading an advice column written by the author of the book Wild. It’s an amazing column full of what I believe are tremendous coaching principles. It is written with heart and beauty. Recently I read this article on that voice and wanted to pass it on. See what you think:
DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #92: Your Invisible Inner Terrible Someone
I am going to start a series on “The Voice” with the intention of helping you to hear it and stop letting it run you.
