Imagine this…
You intend to walk from one place to another.
In other words, you want to get from where you are now to where you want to be.
As you start to walk, you realise you’re not alone. At your side is a child-like “creature” with a mischievous grin, it’s eye flitting between your face and your feet, jumping up and down with excitement in frenzied anticipation of your next step.
Stay with me.
As your leading leg moves forward to take each step, the mischievous creature finds great joy in tripping you up, each time it’s mocking laugh brimming with ever-increasing enthusiasm.
You make progress but it’s slow and cumbersome, as if treading through treacle.
You wouldn’t tolerate this kind of nonsense for long, would you? You’d either give the creature a bloody good talking to, or it’d be on the wrong end of a hefty slap. Either way, you’d make sure it modified its behaviour and wouldn’t dare be so idiotic as to impede your progress again.
But what if you couldn’t see this creature?
And what if you weren’t even aware of its existence?
What if you were constantly being tripped by the unseen foot of an unseen entity that had no other purpose than to hinder your progress and prevent you going from where you are now to where you need to be?
Let me ask you something…
Have you ever been talked out of doing something by a voice inside your head?
Of course you have. We all have.
On occasion that voice serves you. It can be heard as the “voice of reason”. It stops you jumping off the top of a high rise, or walking straight into the path of oncoming traffic.
It’s designed to keep you safe.
Trouble is, in most situations, safe doesn’t help you at all. “Safe” equates to “much of the same”. It’s status quo. The “voice of reason” is more often than not the “voice of limitation”, the unseen entity with the unseen foot waiting to trip you up and impede progress. It lacks situational intelligence – in other words, it has no awareness. So it’ll impede anything representing change – whether life threatening, or life enhancing.
If you’re in the business of growth, so you can earn more, achieve more, give more and get more from life as a consequence, this is your nemesis, your success saboteur.
It knows how to play you better than you know how to play yourself. It’s the source that pollutes your thinking with reasons why you shouldn’t do something. And it knows every trick in the book when it comes to pulling your strings. It’s armed with a host of one liners to sabotage any idea representing growth in your life; “The timing’s not right”, “I’ll do it next time/next year”, “I’m not ready for it yet” blah de blah, ad infinitum.
In those who know no better (which is the vast majority of the population), ignorant to this level of understanding, the unseen enemy of progress sabotages every idea, every opportunity representing growth. Even those who grasp this truth at an intellectual level are still crippled by it.
The individual lacking the necessary self-awareness to bring situational intelligence to the moment, cannot recognise the source of their self-sabotaging thought process for what it is – the outpourings of an existing belief system invested in maintaining today’s reality.
It’ll never be in the business of growth, progress, change and improvement – because it’s not designed to fulfill any other outcome other than what currently is.
Make no mistake, there’s an unseen enemy of progress playing out in your life every day. If you fail to recognise it for what it is, if you fail to distinguish between the source of your untapped potential forever seeking growth and fuller expression with and through you and that which seeks to hold you back, you are today pretty much all you’re ever going to be.
Keep this message in mind the next time you’re faced with an opportunity that opens the door to a much bigger and better future for you.
See how the inner game is played out. Observe how the initial aspiration, the expression of your untapped potential, the essence of your true nature, seeks to drive you to act in accordance with the bigger and better you…
…and within a second or two, the unseen enemy of progress infests your thought process with reasons why you shouldn’t.
This is no fantasy. This is as real as it gets. Within your mind there are constant, opposing forces battling for the prize of your attention. Which voice you give most precedence to determines what you do next…
…and what you do next determines the quality of your life and your future.
You become what you think about. If you’re to be all you’re capable of becoming, you’d be wise to start noticing which voice you listen to and act on most, because you’ll never escape the consequences of your choices, even those you’re not aware of.
It’s a lawful process.
Christian Simpson is the UK’s leading coach and mentor to business owners and entrepreneurs. For COMPLIMENTARY ACCESS to tried, tested and proven entrepreneurial success strategies, click here
