Do we fear, “fear” or do we fear negative outcomes?
Is making a change an admission of being wrong? Do we care about being wrong or others seeing us fail?
Our ego’s aware in a sleep paralyzed state conducting a post mortem of our life’s journey as if it were to end if we took a risk?
Our minds begin racing to hypothetical conclusions. Answering all of our “what-ifs” with erring negativity.
Stop.
Stop and ask yourself this question:
Who do we speak with more than any other person on this planet?
Ourselves.
Read that again.
We speak to our selves more than we speak to anyone else.
Our thoughts, our interpretations of our feelings, the predictive dialogue you have before a meeting with your superior.
It’s all internal monologue, that feels like a dialogue.
There is the side that asks questions and the side that answers.
What’s wonderful about this realization is that “you” are the two sides in “your” head.
Unlike external factors, which we foolishly feel the need to control, the internal voice is your sovereignty.
What’s objectively mad, is that we relentlessly live in our own minds in ways that are in no way shape or form self-serving.
Why is that? Because we have the tendency to allow external factors to dictate our internal behavior.
This analysis paralysis of the ego asks all the wrong questions.
Will my friends still like me if I make this change?
What if I don’t succeed? Will I be seen as a failure?
Aren’t things okay the way they are? Why shake things up?
These questions prioritize your external world over your own mind’s powerful eco-system. You feel so vehemently in control of your world that you think your change in path will shatter the others around you.
At the end of the day: We’re creatures of comfort.
Comfort is relative. Your previous level of comfort dictates a “step up” in comfort.
Contentment with comfort is what differentiates people’s mindset in their approach to success.
Let’s say you have a salary job and you’re making $80k a year.
Life is good, you’re not stressed about your bills, you can afford a night or two out every weekend and you have some leftover for a rainy day.
You’re comfortable and feel like you’ve made it to a point where you can coast.
Your employer will love this. After all the goal of any business is to acquire talent for as little as possible.
Don’t make the mistake of letting your contentment put a cap on your success.
This harps back to the voice in our head telling us to maintain the status quo.
Why shake things up?
That’s a good question. The voice inside your head has answered it repeatedly to the point that you stopped asking.
You haven’t realized you have control of that voice inside and ironically you’ve defeated yourself.
Just think…
Everything you know now, you didn’t know at some point before.
Take a moment to realize your growth and expansion.
You can always learn more, you can always find new passions and you can always re-invent yourself.
You have no control over the external chatter around you, but you do have control over how you speak to yourself.
Do yourself a favor: train that internal voice to break plateaus and be great.
You are in control.
CMO Secret Sauce 