Get Out of Your Own Way

Stop making life harder than it should be

Photo by Fuu J on Unsplash

Life is full of ups and downs, full of obstacles, full of new mountains to climb. And as if all the external difficulties that can set us back weren’t enough, often our greatest obstacle is ourselves.

It’s unnoticeable because we push through it. We grit our teeth, we take another deep breath, we do it. We know exactly what to do and we are fully aware of how we should be thinking about ourselves. We have read all the motivational articles, watched all the relevant TED Talks, we know how to increase our productivity. We know how to hack our lives. We are experts in it. We are enlightened, empowered smart guys who can actually credibly write about it, teach it, coach and train others about it.

Yet in unnoticeable little instances, we are standing in our own way, we are hindering ourselves, we are sabotaging our daily lives. It starts small and through repetition we are getting in the maladaptive habit of negative self-talk, self-doubt, raging imposter syndrome. We spend too much time with toxic people and toxic situations, we are prone to give up — and we almost do, until we convince ourselves that it’s not really us, who gives up.

Self-sabotage starts small, but it spreads like fire. It is difficult to recognise, and when it gets too overwhelming, it is a…