Why you should never let the mind gremlin win

An inspiring friend recently reached out to me with a wonderful opportunity. What I discovered from saying yes and stepping out of my comfort zone was pretty remarkable. Read on as I share exactly what it was and how our journey unfolded…

 

Jaina, I am looking for a VI motivational speaker to deliver a talk at a workshop on speaking with confidence aimed at the visually impaired and supportive carers…and it’s in London.

 

Yes! Of course I’d love to was my first thought, but then a little voice began to speak and said, but but but jaina you have never travelled to London on your own before. Then the silly voice began its rant. You know the little mind gremlin that starts rambling all the reasons why you should not do something? Like totally trying to put you off as it is scared of the unknown.

 

The mind gremlin suddenly went into the if’s, buts and what ifs mode. You have never travelled to London on your own before it repeated, how will you get there, its freezing out there, it’ll be a long long day not to mention the travelling, and on and on it went

 

The fearful part of me was like say no, the empowered me said you can do it. Have confidence you will find a way…so try

 

Ok I thought…lets firstly do this. Ask around to see if someone would kindly like to accompany me. But no joy. Oh what now jaina, what ya going to do?! Off goes that nutty mind gremlin again

 

So I stopped, paused and began an empowering dialogue with myself…

 

How do you feel about making the trip independently with Laura? You have travelled abroad solo before so getting to London should be piece of cake, right? Imagine the value you could create for others by attending. Remember your aspiration to become an “international” speaker

 

Then it hit me. Of course!  A feeling of excitement over powered the fear and I realised a powerful truth. 

 

I had to push beyond my comfort zone and be ok with feeling uncomfortable in order to move toward my dream. I must show the mind gremlin who’s boss! Much like a workout-lifting weights in the gym, the repetition, going 1% harder every time, pushing through the discomfort reaps positive results and leads to progress.

 

So move confidently in the direction of your dream

 

I realised by saying yes, committing to the engagement, regardless of if I found someone or not felt like an empowered yes. I felt present with a purpose in mind

 

Sometimes it’s easy to let fear overwhelm our thinking, take control and dictate our decisions. Simply pausing for just a sec to ask myself, “What’s the purpose, how is it going to serve me and others?” created a shift in my mind.

 

I became aware of how purpose always precedes action no matter what we do

 

Having made my decision to proceed. The rest was pretty easy! So how did our first independent trip to London go?

 

 Jumped out of bed at 4.36am, showered, fed and watered Laura, ruck sack packed with my body fuel-water, macro meals and protein bars and arrived at the station for super early train bound for London St Pancras. Having booked passenger assistance in advance, a member of staff happily escorted us onto the train. First class carriage all to ourselves why not have a snooze. So I did lol

 

As soon as we pulled into the station, we hopped off the train onto the platform where an assistance person was waiting for us. He helped us to our meeting point at kings cross but in the process almost lead us down escalators! Damn, luckily we stopped in the nick of time once I realised what was happening. Laura was unfaised by the encounter with the scary moving steps and her little paws were ok. She confidently guided me through a sea of people with her happy tail wagging like a super star. So proud of her!

 

We made our way to the venue with the help of a lovely volunteer who met us at the station. We had reached our destination! The workshop ran from 10am to 5pm, and wow! What a day it was. It was such a pleasure to share my journey and to offer hope, motivation and inspiration on how adversity can become your greatest asset. But most of all it was just amazing, informative, positive and empowering to have met so many incredible people. Sharing our sight loss journeys, discovering common experiences and empowering one another made the trip worthwhile.

 

The return journey was smooth too. I sat on the train reflecting on the day, feeling happy with a sense of achievement and smile on my face. I thought through how the outcome could have been very different had I allow the mind gremlin to win. If we choose to simply be aware of the negative chatter, let it pass and be open to discovering the purpose behind our decisions we can empower ourselves to move forward regardless of how uncomfortable it may feel

 

So choose to move confidently in the direction of your dreams, be comfortable with being uncomfortable, show that mind gremlin who’s the boss…and who knows what you might discover!