Procrastination, self-doubt and all other demons...

A riff on the voice(s) inside our heads.

We all have at least one voice inside our heads.

Is that voice us? Do we control what thoughts or ideas it generates? Is it our friend or enemy?

Before I read ‘War of Art’ by Steven Pressfield, I did not realise that there was at least one voice inside my head that wasn’t me. That I had no control over. That was and is not my friend. That from which all my demons were coming. Procrastination, self-doubt, and all the others.

This voice would whisper in my imaginary ear, or rather press into my brain:
This task, I don’t think you are ready for it right now. I think we can do it tomorrow.
What’s the harm in opening YouTube once. We will close it after one video.
Let’s not workout today. You just don’t feel like it, do you?

This voice is very subtle and very cunning. It knows when I am weak. It knows what will persuade me to do its bidding. And the more I do that, the more stronger this voice becomes.

This voice is relentless. It shows up daily. It starts chattering the moment I wake up and doesn’t stop until I go to sleep.

The only time it shuts up is when I am actually doing something. When I am taking action, then this voice loses its power over me. But as soon as I pause, it is back.

Now, every time it speaks up, I have two choices:

One, is to give in. When I do that, I become weaker. I start slacking off in the status quo, thinking and discussing, but not doing anything to make my life better. That’s how this voice achieves its goal. It has kept the status quo going. It has kept me in my misery.

The other is to fight. To counter this voice. And to counter it daily.

How do we do that? That’s the sisyphus problem. That’s the boulder that we have to take up the hill daily. But once we start pushing against the boulder instead of thinking about it, once it starts moving, and once we start doing that daily, we start shifting the power from this voice to ours.