#332 – What else do you allow to take charge of your success?

You sabotage your progress in countless ways, preventing your success. Your Ego and the Ghosts, fearing that you're venturing too far out of what feels safe to them, will throw rocks at you––aka, excuses––until you give in.

You won't know what hit you, but one thing is sure: you'll stop going.

To give in to an excuse is to relinquish your power. You buy into the story that something/someone else is in charge and you're but a victim of circumstance.

Some of my self-defeating excuses were:

• There are already too many amazing writers out there
• But I need to make money––I can't afford to spend time writing
• I don't have a writing certificate
• The characters in that new movie have the same names of the protagonists of the novel I'm writing––I can't continue: they'll say I copied!

I gave in to these very logical and real thoughts, because I didn't spot my Ego and the Ghosts taking turns to feed them to me.

GHOST OF UNDERVALUING

(holding a spoon with its shaky hand)

"Be a good girl and open your mouth: you'll never reach Nabokov's or Foster Wallace's mastery––chew, chew, chew, and swallow."

GHOST OF TIME INDIFFERENCE

(desynchronizing all your clocks)

"You'll have time to write, but money comes first."

GHOST OF IDEA DEFLECTION

(shrugging)

"Why bother writing? No one's gonna read it anyway!"

GHOST OF NEED TO PROVE

(crossing out names on a list with a red pen)

"Nope! Without the proper permission form, you can't write."

But I was swallowing these lies. I chose to vacate my power of decision.

Had I stayed in charge, I would've kept my mouth shut and continued to write. I'm doing it now, because I am in charge of what I eat, believe, and think.

What Ego-fed excuses will you refuse to swallow?

Love,

Carolina