Counter Attack

Counter Attack!

 

 

A few days ago I asked you to itemize your excuses.  Did you do it?  This is a really important step in the process of achieving.  It may sound silly, but these excuses may just wind up being the demon that destroys your dreams.  These excuses are the little voices inside your head that seem like the voice of reason, but is really the enemy with in, or your Gremlin as Rick Carson describes in his book “Taming your Gremlin”.

 

There are a number of different ways to handle that ugly voice that tries to convince you that you would be better off staying where you are and not reaching for your dreams.  One way is to itemize all of these negative thoughts and come up with a counter attack.  Develop ways to ignore the voice or to come up with a way of simply shutting it up.  Gagging the voice doesn’t come easy, yet the work involved will be well worth the time and effort. 

 

The first step in shutting down your negative thinking is to take the list you developed and dissect it.   Take your list and find a quiet time where you will be uninterrupted.  This may take as little as a half hour or as long as a week or so.  I urge you to take the time to devote to this exercise.

 

Take your list and answer the following questions about each statement you wrote:

 

1. Is there any truth to the statement? If the answer is yes answer these questions; Is there something I can do change it?  Is there help I can get to make the situation better?
2. If I ignore the voice, what is the worst case scenario?   What will happen if I go ahead?  What will the consequences be?  Let your imagination run wild!  Write it all down!  Then decide would it be worse if you didn’t try at all, or would it be worse if the worst case scenario happened? 
3. If you decide that the statement is not accurate and almost always that will be the case, change the statement around and make it a positive statement.  For instance, if your voice says “You are too old for that!” you would say to yourself, “Age is a state of mind, if my mind says I can do it, so I shall!”  Change each negative statement into a positive action statement. Then when your negative thinking starts in with you, counter attack with your positive statements.
4. If you find your negative voice is a dirty player and keeps arguing with you (and so it shall!).  Shut the voice down completely.  When the voice starts to engage you, do not engage it!  Do not have a conversation with it!  If you move on and think of other things, positive things, keep your focus! The voice will eventually give up and stop. 

Know that you are worth it and that you will succeed.  Keep your eye on the prize!

 

Your negative voice will fight long and hard so you have to have a good  counter attack.  Try the exercises listed above or reading the book “Taming Your Gremlin” by Rick Carson.

 

As always, I would love to hear from you!