05 Oct Fighting your Mind Monster 👹 & Comparison Creature 🧟‍♂️

Just in time for Halloween, let’s talk about the two scariest, menacing beasts living inside us.

Mind Monster, (aka your ego) is the voice that’s outright mean to you. It’s easier to identify because it’s usually the voice we talk to ourself with every day. The voice that sounds like it’s protecting us, who says, “Don’t bother doing that thing you want to do. It’s too hard. You’ll never get anywhere. People will say you’re nuts. You don’t have the money. You don’t have the time. You’re not smart enough. It won’t work, so why try?”

Comparison Creature’s voice is much more subtle, but in some ways, much more cruel. This is the voice who tells you why you are already a failure. It gives you the excuses or reasons to accept what Mind Monster says. It’s the voice saying, “They are so much better looking than you but of course they were born that way so its not fair. They were lucky to have a wealthy family so they have it sooooo much better. They went to a better school. They have all the things you don’t have.Your life is hard and their’s is easy.”

And – holy crow! – when these two get together, bitterness, envy and anger set in. Or worse, we can spiral into a form of depression.

It happened to me this week. I hit a milestone that I should have been proud of.  My YouTube channel turned 2 years old and in that time I’ve created 448 videos (not including private readings). I loved doing it so much that time flew by. And instead of saying “Wow! Look what I’ve accomplished! I can’t believe I was ever scared to start a channel and I managed to learn how to make and edit videos all by myself! So glad I did!”

But, no. That’s not what happened. That little voice of comparison took the wind out of my sails. Comparison creature said in her annoying whinyness, “Everyone else is making money on their YouTube channels, so why aren’t you? You don’t have as many subscribers because you’re old.” Then the asshole Mind Monster chimed in, “Yeah! Why are you doing this? No one cares! You waste all your time giving away your time for free! You should just quit.”

For a day I was paralyzed in sadness and defeat. Until I realized it was all just lies and noise. When I ignore the analytics, and stop comparing myself to other people, I’m happy creating videos. It brings me joy. And I realized that no one gets to tell me what I can enjoy so why should some numbers make me stop doing what I love to do? Because deep in my heart, if even one other person watches a video and feels better in their day, it was worth it!

We live in a world that forces extremes in our faces. A world where Billionaires and celebrities are who we compare ourselves to. Which is a garbage practice because we are not them. And if we want to be, we need to learn to control these thoughts. Because thoughts become things. Where we put our mind is where we will go. It’s all about focusing on what we have instead of what we don’t.

I had to coach myself out of the funk. The only way to handle Comparison Creature is to think about how far I’ve already come. Prove her wrong. I wrote a list of the things I accomplished on my own toward my goals. I am keeping track of my successes and I promised myself I will celebrate them. Even the small ones. because isn’t life just a culmination of all the little things?

And Mind Monster, I acknowledged him for trying to protect me, and then told him to stuff a sock in it. I know if I keep listening to him, I won’t do anything. Because the ego wants us to stay the same. The ego doesn’t want to try anything new. It doesn’t want to risk anything. It’s happy doing nothing because that’s the safest thing. The ego will have us just staring at a wall until our last breath. Sound like fun? No. So let’s stop listening to it so much.

For Mind Monster’s sake, I acknowledge what didn’t work and tweak my next action step! But for the love of all that’s holy, I WON’T call it a failure. I’ll call it a lesson. I understand that if I really want something, I have to keep trying. The thought that keeps me moving forward is —A winner is just a loser who tried one more time.

You see it now? Those dark thoughts are Comparison Creature and Mind Monster — they are just two internal, self imposed bullies. We have the power to control these two because they are simply thoughts. Not so scary anymore, are they? Practice these tricks and you can treat yourself to better life.

Happy Halloween, gorgeous creatures! 🎃🦇🍬

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