Monsters in Your Head

The Time Suck Monster

Confronting our fears from time to time is an important thing to do.  Once you are aware of your fears, it becomes that much easier to confront, neutralize, and then move through them. Since fears only exist in our mind, that is where they are best battled, too.

Over at The Abundant Artist blog, we are given just-that-sort of exercise in the form of a contest* where you are asked to connect with the biggest fear that you feel is holding you back from doing or achieving what you want.

The exercise is simply this: create an artistic manifestation of your biggest fear in the form of a Monster.  (Go ahead and take a quick read of this article, “Fighting the Monsters” for more details. Don’t forget to come back and share your learnings here, too.)

Note: Even aside from the contest aspect of this assignment, I believe this exercise is really useful to do, and even to repeat on a regular basis, in order to stay connected with your feelings about where you are in life and why. The contest part is just the extra push to get you to actually get it done.* (See my P.S. below where I extend my own indefinite contest deadline for you to get it done, too.)

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My Biggest Fear: The Time Suck Monster

To see how this exercise turned out for me, keep reading:

I found that what always seems to lurk in the shadows for me is the fear which I have named: “The Time Suck Monster”.

This Time Suck Monster teases the perfectionist side of me, by telling it that maybe the time isn’t quite right yet, to wait for the better opportunity, etc.  I think this monster has a side-kick named, The Procrastination Monster.  And, I’m pretty sure they have a partnership with The Insomnia Monster, too, who keeps feeding me caffeine and sugary snacks to keep me going: “Gotta use that time wisely,” it keeps taunting. 

There never seems to be enough time to do everything: the business aspects of work; cooking; cleaning; staying fit and healthy; etc.; and after all that, then still finding that coveted time to explore my creative side while knowing that there are always more bills waiting to be paid.

To combat these Monsters, I realize the truth is that these Monsters only win if I let them.  The things I say to  myself to combat them include:

• “How Bad Do You Want It?”
• “Doing something is better than doing nothing, so choose something and just do it.”  
• “Little steps add up to big progress. Keep chipping away at it.”

The mind is a powerful place for generating powerful messages, both positive and negative.  Why not choose the positive ones over the negative?

 So, tell me, how did this exercise turn out for you?

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*Important P.S.  Go ahead and read the other blog post.  Do this exercise for yourself. Then come back and share below.  Don’t worry about the contest entry deadlines, if you do this exercise and the deadline has already passed, do the exercise  anyway for your own benefit, and if you share your results with me below, I’ll be sure to send you something nice as a congratulations.  Just do it!  That’s what’s most important.