Facing Your Dragons To Win The Game of Life
What are the Dragons in your life? What do you mean by winning the game of life?
Here are your Dragons:
- Insecurities – lack of confidence, think you are not good enough
- Fear – think you are not smart enough
- Negative Thoughts – think you cannot be successful
Do you think you’re not good enough, smart enough, attractive enough, or young enough to do whatever it is you want to do. You’ve let those dragons suck away your power and life energy.
To win the game of life, you have to play to win.
You have to face up to these dragons so you regain the power to overcome them and win the game of life. See my earlier post: 3 Easy Ways You can Take Back Your Personal Power.
You have to seek outside help or a coach if you cannot beat those dragons
One of the realities I’ve discovered as a performance coach is that:
We are self-fulfilling prophecies: what we think about ourselves tends to become our reality. Did you know that on the average day 80 percent of your thoughts are negative.
Can you imagine what these dragons are on a bad day? We’re literally programming ourselves to fail or be too scared to try new things.
How My Coach Helped Me?
I want to share a personal story about my attempt to write my first book, little did I know that what followed would be one of the most profound lessons of my entire life, one that would cost me untold time, energy, and money.
Twenty grueling months later after a host of different editors rejected my book, I simply gave up.
Faced with the task of writing a book, I turned to a quivering mass of fears and insecurities.
Quite simply, I just didn’t believe I had what it took to write a book. I abandoned the idea altogether for two months and not a single day passed that I didn’t question my decision and beat myself up about letting that project best me.
I was part of a coaching program, I confessed to my mentor that I was afraid. I remember this well because she looked me in the eye and she said, “Lee, now you must write the book. Not for your career, fame, or to impress any of your colleagues.
“You have to write the book as if no one in the world will read it but you, because you have something important to say.”
The price for not facing your dragons is lost opportunity, time, self-esteem, and the misuse of your potential and talent.
Face Up to Your Dragons and Do the Best to Create Your Own Life
I’ve grown to believe it is easier to face up to life and do the best you can.
And, yes, I did write the book and it was the first of many that I’ve written. In fact, by facing my own fears, it has actually lead me to massive success that I would not have had if I had not been willing to fail.
Let me give you an interesting definition of the word fear.
Fear is: fantasized experiences appearing real. Most of the things we fear are simply an exaggeration of our imagination.
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence in every experience where you look fear in the face. Do the things you think you cannot do!” It’s time to slay those dragons.
Are you a Perfectionist?
Lisa Ford from Newport Beach, Californi asked, “I grew up in a super critical family environment. Whenever I want to try something new, I become so critical of myself that I get paralyzed. How do I get myself moving in the right direction and become more productive?”
Lisa has what I called the perfectionism dragon. The good news is you can beat this dragon with some awareness and effort. I can say that with confidence because I have beaten this dragon.
Most people don’t realize it, but being a perfectionist causes procrastination. It causes you to put off doing what needs to be done because the root of procrastination is fear that we won’t do something perfectly, so we are reluctant to even get started.
Striving to be perfect created unrealistic expectations, pressures, and problems.
Being a perfectionist creates stress and suffering so that being spontaneous and playful is almost impossible.
There is nothing perfect in life, no perfect careers, no perfect marriages, or kids. So why do we expect ourselves to be perfect?
It holds us back from really living. So, give yourself permission to turn your back on that old type of thinking and behavior. As of today, avoid giving yourself that label of being a perfectionist. Instead, label yourself as a person who is flexible, commit yourself to doing just the best you can do.
Learn more about the Success Smarts® Club and see how you can be successful in slaying your Dragons in your life.
