I’ve recently been thinking a lot about how our own thoughts can help to sabotage things we’d like to do. For me, as anyone following this blog knows by now, time is an issue. I try to squeeze as much as possible out of one day and that in itself can be a limiting programme. It’s something I learnt as a child – I couldn’t sit and read until all my chores were done – and I still am aware that this programme runs through my mind even today. I’m reading a Kathy Reichs book and this morning fancied sitting down for an hour or so and immersing myself in my book. (And yet I’ll sit and waste time watching TV!!!) But I talked myself out of it, instead going to do the ironing. OK, so the ironing needed doing, and I’m glad I’ve got it out of the way, but was it really better to do that rather than to indulge myself and read for an hour? It’s a huge mind-block that I have to overcome whenever I want to read!!
I have various programmes that run silently in the background telling me that I can’t do certain things. Mostly I don’t notice them, until I’m about to do something that is contrary to my programming. Take drawing for instance. Since being told at school – as so many of us have been – that I can’t draw, I now believe that I can’t draw! OK, so when I try it, it doesn’t look much like what I am looking at. But the funny thing is that when I draw without moving the pen, or looking at what I’m doing – for instance, looking out of the window at the fence and trees and drawing them without looking down on my page – I produced a fairly reasonable sketch. So the whole ‘I can’t draw’ thing is a load of baloney! I don’t think I can draw, ergo I can’t draw, but once my brain is out of the way, I can indeed draw!!!!
Just realising that those programmes exist can help to eliminate them. I also realised that I have a programme that tells me Photoshop is hard. OK, so it might be, but I’ve now told myself that I don’t care – I’m going to try and learn it anyway! Other people can and I’m not stupid, so I can too! This is one of those occasions when comparisons with other people can help and not paralyse!
I have decided to look out for limiting programmes from my past that are no longer useful to me, and eliminate or transform them to positive programmes which will help me persist and stay focussed on my goals. Nature is sprouting new shoots everywhere and so will I!! What programmes are limiting you?