Do you ever feel right after committing to any goal, New Year’s Resolution and otherwise, there’s a huge ‘test’to see if you’ll succeed? Kinda feels like all these anonymous judges are sitting around cackling ‘well, let’s see if she’s really gonna follow through on this one”…
Kinda like “Does she have what it takes? Is she brave enough? Does she have enough courage?”
Sound familiar—the sneers of the mental hackers, 99% convinced of your failure, almost bullying, assuming you’ll quit?
I woke to their heckles today.
And I laughed right back. And shortly thereafter, with a few moments of stillness, the hecklings ceased and I went about my morning.
Now here’s the deal: these mental hackers are not real. Well, they’re only ‘real’ to the degree we give them power. But what they’re squawking on and on about is sheer nonsense.
Why?
The simple fact of committing ourselves to a genuine desire is already wedded to every ounce of our ability to follow through.
Lemme say it another way: If I’ve been quiet and have stilled my thinking, and have come up with a few authentic desires that I hope to achieve, then time and again I learn that I ALREADY have the courage, the strength, the intelligence, the whatever I need to do so. All I need to do is move forward one step – one mental step or thought – at a time.
It may not seem so because I haven’t yet set out to accomplish the goal. But the simple fact that I felt nudged to walk forward to accomplish a task proves that I ALREADY have the necessary courage, know how and strength to accomplish that task.
Otherwise the ‘act’ wouldn’t be surrounded by a ton of ‘what if I fail?” messages.
Consider this:
When’s the last time you felt nervous about tying your shoes, walking without holding someone’s hand, riding a bike without training wheels, brushing your teeth, taking a shower, making toast, or anything else that’s now second nature?
Probably decades….but if you go back in thought and consider what it felt like to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels I’m sure you can still feel the fears you had… “what if I fall and scrape my leg?”
Yet now, you do any of these without much thought because you’ve mastered how. And at the time you were learning, you drew out the courage necessary to learn—from within. The desire to learn was there, you acted on it, and walla, the courage came right along with. (and maybe so did tons of falling, but eventually you shed those training wheels).
Point: if you are feeling any sense of “I’m gonna need a ton of courage to master that” on any goal you’ve recently committed to, take a deep breath….pause….and realize something; you already have the courage it takes to move forward, as well as any other qualitiy you need to master the goal.
Why?
Because the very same nudge that plants the seed of our desires comes already fully equipped with every ounce of everything else we need to follow through.
All that’s needed is the willingness to walk, move thought, go forward.
Years ago in a motorcycle safety training course, my instructor put it this way: “Look where you want to go.”
Besides learning how to peek some tough mountains, learning to ride a motorcycle challenged me in every way emotionally and ability wise possible. The bike was heavy, the open road, albeit inviting, was intimidating, and the reality of operating this much machinery in that open air, well, at times it became overwhelming.
Yet I had this burning intent desire to learn and to master riding.
And my instructor saw this, reminding me “Tre, you wouldn’t be here if you couldn’t do this. Courage goes hand and hand with desire.”
Do you hear the protection embedded therein?
None of us would get the nudges we do if we didn’t already possess the qualities to accomplish the goal.
But the thing I’m finding is I have to remind myself this over and over. And to the degree I stay on top of my thoughts affirming my completeness, that I’m lacking nothing to achieve this goal, to that degree do I squelch the mental attackers.
Only you know what you’ve set your mind on achieving. And probably right about now you’re in the midst of mapping out some tangible steps you need to take in order to achieve the goal.
But as you are looking where you are trying to go and that welling up within your thinking starts heckling doubts and fears and second guessing, get into your thoughts and remind yourself of all the qualities you ALREADY possess.
And if you need proof, go do one small thing today to exercise that courage or wit or humor or ability.
Christine Kane’s post about 66 ways to build your courage made me chuckle last night. There’s a ton of great ideas in there to sample as suggestions for building courage.
But the point: we each right now have all the courage, intelligence and ability to accomplish what we’ve set out to do, even if it means having the wisdom to ask for help.
Stay steady, look where you want to go, and start heading there.
Would love to hear more about where you’re heading…where you’re ‘looking to go’ and whatever else you’re finding out as you move forward to accomplish your goal.