Sat down to write the blog and got an attack of the gremlins this morning, so all that comes to me is that debilitating voice in my ear:

“You’ve nothing original to say – what are you doing writing this rubbish?”; and

“You’ve no real insights into what works or doesn’t work even for yourself, so who are you to set yourself up as the expert?!”

Now the gremlin is a group of thought processes and feelings that maintains the status quo. It’s intended to protect us - but in fact it stops us from moving forward and getting what we truly want from our lives and work.

For me, the hard part in spotting my own gremlins is that I really am a ‘can-do’, nothing-stops-me kind of person. So, what happens for me is not so much that I’m directly dis-empowered by my gremlins, more that I’m driven to over-compensate or actually just to avoid certain areas altogether.

So, if you take this morning’s gremlin attack as an example, people who know me will tell you just how insightful and original I am – and no surprise, because I’ve been driven by those gremlins to work on both for a long, long time! But if you look at the bigger pattern for me, you’ll see how even just this morning’s two gremlin doubts and fears have actually stopped me from getting what I want in my life and work. For example:

• I pulled out of  a possible publishing deal because I wasn’t happy that I had enough original material for my first book
• I sold my previous (very successful!) business at least partly because I didn’t feel we were being creative enough
• I’m continually looking for the ‘magic bullet’ in my work, instead of just practising the basic skills.

The first step in reclaiming any ground lost to the gremlin is just to get tuned in to the fact that this process operates in some way for all of us. It’s meant to protect us and will always be there. After that, start looking out for your own gremlins. If you’re a smart, motivated person, don’t kid yourself that this doesn’t happen for you – just start noticing, and particularly look out for:

• those things which you’ve been driven to become really good at or which you wish other people would be better at
• habits which keep you struggling, suffering or sacrificing
• the more usual, dis-empowering gremlin activity by listening for the kind of language the gremlin uses:
  “I can’t…”  “I shouldn’t…”  (or “I should…spend more time with the kids…explain things more clearly…”), “I must…” (or “I mustn’t…) “That’s just the way things are…”

And there are more strategies for then dealing with what you find, so check out the further reading below or give me a call:

“Taming Your Gremlin (revised edition)” by Richard Carson
Pub. Harper Collins, July 2003, ISBN 0060520221

“Soul Without Shame” by  Byron Brown
Pub. Shambala, Feb 1999  ISBN 157062383X