Overcoming Silent Disapproval

Ever felt like an underdog?  Does that mountain you need to climb look … HUGE!

I've had those feelings since …. forever.  I'm the youngest of four.  I didn't grow up in a normal family.  (Did any of us?)  My parents had an uncanny way of expecting excellence, but without speaking a word.  No overt pressure.  Their primary force du jour was Silent Disapproval.  My siblings were all excellent at their chosen tracks.  My oldest brother is an intellectual genius.  My sister, an extraordinary professional artist.  My other older brother, a financial guru.  I felt a constant pressure to excel. 

When we played cards, I would lose.  When we played the game Risk, I would lose.  When we played Monopoly, I would lose.  When we wrestled on the floor in the living room, I would always get pinned. 

Silent Disapproval and Relentless Comparison with Continual Defeats.

I've talked this over with my siblings to corroborate my experience.   No such luck.  Their experience of my parents and growing up is nothing like mine.  Now I wonder if those voices of Silent Disapproval, Relentless Comparison and Continual Defeats were my own creation.

Sounds miserable, but it wasn't. 

Those voices were my unique way to create a DRIVE to excel!  

Even today, I occasionally hear those voices!  Do you hear them?

From a very young age, I discovered when I hear those voices of Silent Disapproval, Relentless Comparison and Continual Defeats, I have a choice. 

Choose to be crushed by their weight. 

OR  

I can stare back ... defiantly. 

Choose Defiance.

That's what I did as a kid.  I always asked to play another game of Risk, another game of Monopoly.  Let's wrestle again.  I WAS going to figure out how to win.

Persistence was the key.

Here's my secret weapon that has helped me to choose defiance since I was a little kid.  It never fails. 

Ready?

It's my favorite children's book of all time.  I would see the cover of that book and my little heart would leap.  I'd pull that book out and insist someone read it to me -- so many times I memorized it!  I remember the illustrations on each page.

The book?  The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper.

Right now I'm smiling as a I can see the Blue Engine on the cover!  That Blue Engine is an old friend.

As the Blue Engine looked up at the huge mountain in front of him, he knew he couldn't disappoint the children!  Quitting just wasn’t a possibility.  His chant as he climbs the mountain has become my mantra:

"I think I can.  I think I can.  I think I can."  
(MUST be repeated at least three times to have any effect!)

It's not a wish or a hope.  It's a gritty mindset to lift one foot and step.  Repeat.  That's all that's needed in this moment.  Persistence WILL win.  Maybe not in the next step.  Maybe not today.  But I WILL get to the top of that HUGE mountain.

Silent Disapproval?  Relentless Comparison?  Continual Defeats?  

I hear your voice.  

But I have another voice that's much louder than yours. 

A smile broadens on my face when I look at that mountain.  

Here we go again…. 

"I think I can.  I think I can.  I think I can."  

Live 100% Empowered, my friend!