I am very familiar with self-sabotaging. I can think of a few occasions in which I've practiced such a self-defeating habit. I honestly, though, thought I was pretty much over the familiar self-sabotaging habits, and doing rather well when all of a sudden a video from one of my mentors discussed this topic on a different level.
He ventured to say, and he's not the first to discuss this topic in such a manner, that we all have a certain temperature that we're comfortable at. Let's say you're a 65 (F) degree-er and you go visit a 75 (F) degree-er in their house.
You'll be sweating, right? You will do whatever you can do to get your temperature back down to feeling comfortable around that 65-degree mark. Right?
Yes. You would, or at least you'd politely sit extremely uncomfortable for the duration of the visit.
So, let's say you're a freelance writer who has been making a decent 5-figure income over the years and while it's not enough to get comfortable financially, you've grown comfortable with the struggle of survival that's come with that 5-figure salary.
To get a higher salary would subconsciously feel 'wrong', and you may unknowingly self-sabotage yourself by overspending, slacking off on the quality of work, taking the easier route on projects, or just plain declining those extra projects.
Soon your workload went from an amazing first-time 6-figure revenue stream, back down to a 5-figure where you were "more comfortable". And then you look back and wonder, what the heck happened?!
You self-sabotaged!
We all do this. We are all guilty of self-sabotaging without even realizing it. Sadly though, most of us think of self-sabotage as some extreme flip-out type of behavior, but in reality a lot of times it's more subtle.
It's more like that writer story I just shared above, the 6 figure writer who started overspending and slacking off and taking the easier route with projects, just because. They were subconsciously uncomfortable with this high-figure revenue stream. And so, they sabotaged their success and had to start over again.
It's crazy to me sometimes, how subtle our behaviors can be. How we do things without malicious intent, just because we are wired one way? Our brain just wants to keep us protected, it doesn't know the salary figures or how much you need to survive or how much you need to retire, it only knows the now and the feeling you have about this topic deep within.
The brain of this writer knew that once that writer got to 6 figures, they were pretty uncomfortable. To be honest, upon further evaluation of their "personal story", it was more about them not wanting to be a "snobby rich person" ... a limited belief that they had accumulated over the years from various family members and friends.
Again, not malicious intent by anyone, but it was just some sort of subtle feeling inside the writer's subconscious that caused them to create the chaos, that put their income lower, and then made them have to work through these emotions and limited beliefs, before they were ready to hit 6 figures again.
You see, my friends, we are all guilty of thinking we are less than worthy of a certain revenue amount, a certain type of relationship, a friendship, or even opportunities. We will subconsciously self-sabotage in those little unseeing ways.
And this won't be corrected until we pause, look back, and realize that we are doing it!
This is why I am often found evaluating myself. I want to be better, do better, feel better, and stop thinking I am less than worthy of all that I've worked hard to create in my life and business.
You are also VERY WORTHY of all that you've created and will create. I hope that this post has helped you look inward to realize that perhaps you're subtly self-sabotaging something today and maybe, just maybe, need to start a daily journal to document ways in which you can
Figure out the main cause
Determine a call to action for yourself to do better
Hire a goal success coach, like me, to help you work through it.
This will all help you to succeed in accomplishing more of what you were put here in this world to do. Oh, and that video, click here to watch it - by Ed Mylette on YouTube.
Sending you love and light.
xoxo,
Brandy Ellen