In ancient Pompeii homeowners used large intricate tiles in their entryway floor to ward off potential intruders; BEWARE OF DOG signs have been around for ages, it seems. Whether the dog is real is irrelevant; it’s the thought there might be a dog that triggers a fear and an inability to move ahead that the BEWARE OF DOG signs illicit, rendering the signs so effective, thus preventing any perceived negative advances.
I often work with clients who are deeply frustrated with themselves because they’re not achieving their goals and feel anger, anxiety and hold themselves in severe self judgment at how seemingly long it’s taking them to gain any traction toward their next big thing, or each time they attempt a step toward their goal they experience extreme resistance around the very thing they say they want to do.
If this is you, then in my experience you’re completely normal.
Most likely you’ve got a “tile” of thought warning you against proceeding, so every time you come up close to progress you hit internal resistance and hold yourself back.
What’s most interesting is the buried, or competing, thought: you aren’t consciously aware of its existence. Look underneath what you’re not accomplishing to discover your block.
What’s the worst thing that could happen if you succeed, if you do the thing you’re NOT doing?
Too often we have a great plan and a vision and we stay out in that expansive space and get overwhelmed at all that has to happen to realize the vision, so we do nothing. It’s great to have a plan and a vision, but then we must pull it all back to center and see what the one next thing is and do that, rather than thinking the big plan and vision should be complete at conception and then we judge ourselves for not having done it and we create distance from the very thing we think we’re supposed to be doing and creating.
Good grief. That’s exhausting.
My assumption is the judgment and misidentification of yourself is your “tile.”
Who would you be without all those thoughts, without that “tile”?
When you expose the tile, you also expose the thought’s irrelevance. Remember it’s only the thought there might be a dog that prevents an intruder from breaking in. The same is true for you. It’s only the made up thoughts you’re having that are preventing you from moving forward.
Identify and expose your internal competition. Then step out of your own way, stop making up stuff and move forward — one step at a time.
There is no dog.
