On your journey to success the most significant obstacles you will experience are not external challenges, but rather your internal enemies, those inner thoughts that convince you that you are not good enough… you won’t succeed… you don’t deserve… it will be too hard… the easy way is better… you did that wrong… and ALL the other unhelpful or negative thoughts that pop into your head and discourage you from trying, and doing, what you really want!
It’s the limitations your inner critics, your saboteurs, place on you that hold you back. Your saboteurs are the deeply ingrained patterns of thought and behavior that stem from fear, insecurity, and negative beliefs. They operate beneath the surface, and are really good at undermining your confidence, creativity, resilience, happiness, success, etc. they also colour the lens through which you see, and react in, the world.
Your inner critics will keep you trapped in your ‘comfort zone’, and keep you playing small in your life, your business, and your relationships. Some of them are easily identified, and some are really really good at hiding, but every time something doesn’t go as you planned… or how you expected… they are there like a band of bullies saying ‘see, I told you so…’ They are the inner judge(s) that you view yourself and others with.
Inner critics are a universal phenomenon — everyone is afflicted by them, and you’ve very likely allowed them to feed your stress, anxiety, and fears, as they undermine your wellness, your performance, your relationships, and your happiness. The question is not whether you have these inner critics, but how yours operate and how strong they are.
Your Saboteurs’ thinking, feeling, and reacting patterns have become soft-coded in your brain through neural pathways. When these neural pathways are triggered, you are “hijacked” by your Saboteurs, and you feel, think, and act using their patterns.
Saboteur patterns are often rooted in fear, anger, regret, shame, guilt, obligation, and negative self-talk, and your devilish Saboteurs will claim this is good for you. For example, the Judge Saboteur tells you that constantly badgering yourself over your mistakes and shortcomings will cause you to improve and achieve. But ultimately, what really happens is you waste precious vitality and energy beating yourself up and suffering through the negativity.
The reality is that your Saboteurs are the cause of your unnecessary stress, anxiety, self-doubt, frustration, restlessness, and unhappiness, and they keep you trapped there! The Saboteurs’ deeply ingrained patterns will hijack your ability to perform at your best, feel your best, and nurture healthy relationships.
The great news is that you can significantly reduce the power of these mental foes. The key to weakening Saboteurs is identifying them and exposing their hidden beliefs, their patterns, and the lies they tell you. By doing so you can create a “mug shot” of your internal enemy, profiling it so the moment it shows up you can diminish its credibility and power over your thoughts and actions.
Identifying and intercepting your Saboteurs is a crucial step towards improving performance, relationships, wellbeing, team dynamics, and organizational success. It starts with understanding the origin of Saboteurs and how they affect you.
True transformation requires 20% insight generation and 80% muscle building. By building and exercising your Saboteur Interceptor Muscle you can identify and label your negative thoughts and emotions as Saboteur and let them go at that moment. By practicing a simple daily repetition, over an extended period of time, you can convert your healthy new insights into the new mental muscles it takes to achieve and sustain your positive mental health.
Our bad habits live in our minds in the form of neural pathways — aka mental muscles — that automatically generate our old responses. You can’t fight these mental muscles with insight alone. It takes muscle to fight muscle, and no book, 2-day workshop, or coaching session can build up enough strength for the new way to overcome the old way.
Through understanding the impact of your Saboteurs, implementing strategies for intercepting them, and cultivating a lifelong mental fitness practice, you and your team can overcome self-sabotage and unlock your full potential for performance and happiness.
Discover Your Saboteurs, And Stop Your Self-Sabotage
Take the Free Five-Minute Saboteur Assessment, that identifies your top Saboteurs. You’ll receive a full report on the makeup of your Saboteurs, with detailed definitions and explanations of the 10 Saboteurs.
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