Off and on for about the last month, I have had what the awesome Dr. Brene Brown (author of the New York Times bestselling book Daring Greatly) calls “gremlins” in my head, talking to me in a way that makes me occasionally question the validity of some of my decisions and personal projects.
You know those gremlins. The inner voices which can cause you to second guess what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. Or they make you feel uncomfortable or afraid about life in general. Sometimes I let the gremlins in and sometimes I don’t. I try really hard to ignore them but it all depends on the time and the place of when they try to reach out to me.
I know in my head that the gremlins are a waste of time and that focusing on the tasks I consider important is definitely the smarter way to go. But sometimes, those dysfunctional guys get loose and then I have to use all the positive tricks I know to ignore them. Completely.
I tell myself to focus on whatever I am trying to do and ignore the extraneous stuff that is flying around looking for a fertile place to land. Or I call a trusted friend or sibling and see if I can talk it through to get perspective on the confusing situation.
Stumbling is normal but we can’t let “can’t do” emotions hold us back from trying the next new thing that comes our way. And I think that’s what the gremlins try to do. Keep us in a comfortable place. Hold us back from taking a chance. Keep doing what we are doing now, with no variation.
But that’s not a positive way for us to live and that’s why the gremlins have to be shut down. Living life means taking chances. I tell myself to push through the uncertainty and try again and I hope you do too. Maybe not try the exact same way I did before but commit to going at the situation again a little differently and maybe this time the solution will reveal itself.
We need to keep going. We need to keep going. We need to keep going.
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