I have encountered many people, including myself, that flirt with innovative ideas, want to change something in themselves or their circumstances, usually saying: “Yes, but…it is too hard; it is so uncertain; it is scary”… fill in your own dots.
There is this voice or voices in our head that show up as soon as the status quo is threatened. Call it fear, saboteur, analyser – whatever name you have for it. You and I know it well too well. It is that voice saying “Hey, we are fine here – why do you want to change? We know this place well enough – the unknown is uncertain and terrifying”. And so…we keep on living the “normal life”.
Fear drains and sucks the energy out of your soul and being. It is distracting, cumbersome, tiring and very often irrational. In our minds we make it way too big than what the reality actually is. What I have learned is that breaking fear up in chewable bits make it simpler to overcome it. What helps is also changing the perspective on how we see an issue. What glasses do we have on? The black ones where things might seem gloomy, hopeless and stuck or the rainbow ones where seeing from different perspectives give options (not insinuating that those options are the easy way out) – and obstacles are converted to see a way/s towards the solution/s.
These words are not only uttered from your own internal fears. Have you noticed if you share an idea with someone be it friends, family or colleagues and if they answer in the format of…”Yes, but..!” how patronizing and demotivating it is. I agree facts needs to be stated and there is always a way how to communicate those truthfully and honestly without killing the spark of a great idea or self-development.
What inspire and resonate with me when I am in that place of fear and blockage are these words from one of my favorite writers (you can replace the word “God” with what resonates for you – don’t let that block you from getting the essence of what these words communicate):
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?” Actually who are you not to be?
YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory that is within us. And as we let our light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. — Marianne Williamson (Nelson Mandela used this passage in his 1994 Inaugural Speech.)”
Let it land! Breathe it in!
Believe you are the light and shine your path and consequently other’s paths. And one small step towards that beautiful journey is replacing your YES, BUTs…with YES, ANDs. It is that simple sometimes 😉