We all have one. You know that little person who sits on one shoulder or the other and whispers into your ear. Things like “you can’t”….”you shouldn’t”…. and so on. Have you named yours? Mine’s called Dufus.
Some Gremlins have soft voices and don’t give input very often and others can be very loud and are always there, right in your ear, constantly talking to you. I call these the bully Gremlins.
So why are Gremlins important? Basically we allow them to self sabotage what we want to do. How many times have you set out to do something and then didn’t. Maybe it went something like this “Today’s the day! I’m going to stop drinking these soda’s because I know they are full of sugar and causing me some health issues” But each day that little voice whispers in your ear things like, “you’re too busy today let’s do this tomorrow” or “You’re not feeling great today so let’s do this tomorrow”. Then tomorrow comes and the same voice whispers in your ear. The result is that we never get round to doing what we set out to do. These whispers can be about anything.
For many of us it’s because of the Gremlin on our shoulder that we never really progress. We know what we want to do but we listen and then don’t follow through. We know what we need to change but again we somehow never get round to making those changes. It makes us feel like a failure but we’re actually listening to what our Gremlin whispers and, believing what we hear, we lose our confidence. Isn’t it always easier not do something – not to put ourselves out there? Over the next week or so give some thought as to how active your Gremlin is. Once you realize that your Gremlin is there and influencing what you set out to do – give it a name. Recognize it for what it is. Start calling it out!
I’m writing about this because I know how hard it is for many of us to make any changes in our life. We know what we need to do but somehow we just never get around to it. That Gremlin is one of the reason’s why. The good news is that you can take steps to get your Gremlin under control. It won’t be happy and will try to convince you not to but you do have the power. There’s a five step process to successfully fight your Gremlin.
The first step is that you have to recognize your Gremlin. Give it a name and acknowledge that it’s sitting there on your shoulder. Second, is to refute your Gremlin. Stand up for yourself, be sure of yourself and take away the power it holds over you. Third, remove your Gremlin from your shoulder. Just make the decision that you’re not going to listen any more. Fourth, regain your power and self control and lastly, return to being you, having the confidence to do whatever it is you want to do. Of course, I’m simplifying here and making it sound like it’s a really easy thing to accomplish. For some it is but for others it may be much more complicated. This is where your personal health coach could step in. A coach will work through this process with you one step at a time.
If you’re not ready for a coach (is that your Gremlin talking?) then there’s a great book out there. You’ll find it on Amazon and there’s a quick link for you on my website. “Taming Your Gremlin” by Rick Carson. It’s certainly worth a read.
Don’t feel you’re the only one with a Gremlin. We all have our own Gremlin sitting on our shoulder just ready to swing into action to sabotage us. Mine is currently yelling “Why did you write this – no one will be interested”! So I’m just going to ignore that and post anyway.
If this resonates with you please send a message on the contact page I’d love to hear about your Gremlin if you’d like to share.
