Do you find yourself just trying to hang on and get through the recession? Perhaps you are waiting for things to turn around or something to happen (business partner make a decision, new clients to show up, reorganization at a job to work itself out) before you move forward?

If so, you’re not alone. Many people are playing the “hang in there” and waiting game. But here’s the thing – when you do that, you’re living life like the cat on an old poster of mine. The one where the cat is hanging from a tree branch by one paw and the caption says “Hang in there Baby”. You’re really courting disaster.

When you feel fear or like you’re at the mercy of something “out there”, you find yourself:

* Tensing up as your body constricts

* Stressing out but going nowhere

* Feeling all alone and paralyzed right where you are

* Hoping and praying some Hail Mary effort you put forth will create a miracle or someone else will come save you

Here’s the thing, none of these choices are going to get you where you want to go. (And, yes, not choosing is a choice.) I have yet to find a story of success where someone took the approach of just hanging on for any length of time and were joyful with the results. Sure there may be moments when you need to pause, reflect, and make space to make a decision, but as long as you don’t let days turn into weeks turn into months, that is not hanging on, that is conscious creation.

All the experts I coach with and mentor with share a similar message -You are responsible for your results. This is not just in good times but in all times and all results. While lots of people are sitting around with a beer kvetching about the economy, their job, and having a pity party, people who will ultimately succeed are out there creating their own reality. They are willing to do and be what the majority of people are not.

I used to sit back and look at successful people like these who seemingly had effortless success and made money in sums I could barely count the zeros on, and just be pissed-off. Like why them and not me, right? Until it became as clear as day to me -they were willing to do the things I was not. They were willing to do things differently, take a risk, not follow the crowd of lemmings off the cliff, and stop waiting around for someone to deliver them an answer. They went out and found the answer from other successful people or created their own answers in a new way.

Like the cat in the poster, there really is only one way to get out of a jam where you feel like you’re hanging off a cliff by a branch. First you need to open yourself up to receive (someone to reach their hand out to you). Then you need to trust that the support that shows up is exactly right for you. Then you need to let go and surrender (if you don’t let go, you’ll just engage in a tug of war with the help that shows up).

One thing I know for sure is that if you own or are starting your own business and you’re waiting for things to get better before you invest in your own growth, take a stand for your value, or commit to your marketing, you will be one of those “has-been” businesses at whatever time the economy does turn around. If you are an employee and you’re just hanging in there until things get better or “settle down” before you invest in your own growth, prepare for your next career step, or make a move that’s right for you, you’ll be waiting forever.

During this time of great opportunity (and really every day can be a time of great opportunity if you look) are you going to do something with it or wait around for “someday”? The truth is we rarely regret things that we do; we regret the things we did not do.

So, are you going to wait around and create a trail of regrets or make a decision right here, right now to take your power back, your response-ability and become your own success story? The choice is yours, choose wisely.

Paula Gregorowicz, The Paula G Company, helps women get comfortable in their own skin so they can fully value who they are and what they offer and as a result experience greater levels of personal and professional success. She empowers them to gain the clarity, confidence, and courage to succeed on their own terms and live life by their own design. Learn the “5 Steps to Move from Fear to Freedom” (for free)

Ever want to tell someone to get a grip? Tell them that they have run amok in their minds and are not facing reality? Stop them from completely ‘losing it’ and self-destructing? How often have you told yourself to get a grip only to later serve up more and more justification for your misguided thinking and emotions? Your very own self-sabotage?

How do you achieve a centered calm presence when your life experience is flung in scattered directions, randomly, leaving you with anxiety, fear, depression or utter confusion? Or worse yet, your frozen in action; completely stuck. Trapped in the mire of your own monkey mind.

You get a grip on your Inner Critic by letting go of the grip it has over you.
“People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.” ~George Bernard Shaw

You create your experience through the expression of the essence of what you think about, whether it is something you want or something you do not want. Your Inner Critic is often the originator of what you think about. If your focus and attention in upon that which you have and do not want, you will create more of what you do not want. If you allow your thoughts to be occupied with worry then you will create an experience that reflects what you fear.

Your Inner Critic serves up these seemingly automatic thoughts of worry, fear and other anxiety to hold you back and keep you safe. He has you in his grip as if you were a child about to run into the street. He holds onto in fear of your safety for if he were to let go you would surely die. And you live, frozen in place or creating more evidence to support the stronghold the Inner Critic has over you.

To release the Inner Critic grip tell him “You’re not the boss of me!” Reclaim your power. In that powerful you stand centered in the truth of who you are and committed to your passion, your gift that you are here to bring forth into the world. You will remember that there is nothing that you desire that you cannot achieve, and there is nothing that you do not want that you cannot release from your experience.

Recognizing the connection between what you think and feel and what you create for your life experience weakens the fearful grip you hold upon yourself. You can release the grip by taking responsibility for generating the thoughts and feelings that will deliver more of the experiences you desire and less of what you do not want to occur in your life.

What is your dream, your deepest desire?

Speak and act in the direction of that desire. Any thoughts, feelings, emotions you have that run contrary to that desire is the work of your Inner Critic. He in then in control of the decisions and choices you make moving forward. It’s easy to tell if your Inner Critic has a grip on you or not. When you are victim to his power, entrenched in his grip, you do not feel good. It is as simple as that. Uncomfortable feelings are clear indicators that your thoughts are not in alignment with your dreams, your desires. The choices you make based on those thoughts will not result in the experience you want to create. Fear based thoughts will lead to self-sabotage. Without exception.

“Every speaker has a mouth; An arrangement rather neat. Sometimes it’s filled with wisdom. Sometimes it’s filled with feet.” – Robert Orben

Whatever you are paying attention to, whether it be remembering the past, observing the present or thinking about the future, you use to plant the seeds for what you will experience in that future. How you show up in your life is what you create. Do you show up in the clenched fist of your Inner Critic or will you present yourself standing firm in your own power, speaking and action in alignment with the fullest expression of your authenticity, your truth?

Release the Inner Critic grip to free yourself to create from your heart instead of your Inner Critic monkey mind. With this freedom comes expanded possibilities and unlimited potential.

“To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” – Henry David Thoreau

Valery is an Artist Mindset Mentor & Coach who helps creative people get out of their own way to overcome the struggles that come packaged with the life of a visual & performing artist. Clients learn how to express their full potential deliberately & responsibly to create more passionately, profoundly, productively & profitably. Empower the Wizard Within to actualize & express your full creative potential http://www.InnerWizard.com Free tips!

1.0 Degree° Amarani

To upgrade is human

Tag Archives: freedom

Are You Just Trying To Wait And Hang On?

How to Get A Grip on Your Inner Critic