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How to Overcome Self Defeating Inhibitions: On the Fallacy of Needing to Know Why
Manage fears and doubts with the ‘as if’ technique
In my ambitious days of striving for more worthiness, I always got stuck in finding a way forward, whether stopping a bad habit, losing weight, or pushing myself forward to some virtuous goal.
Do you find the way ahead blocked? It could be fear of rejection, doubts about your talents, or uncertainties about the value of the goal sought, given the costs.
Until a few years ago, I had no general term for these obstacles, but then a teacher of mine told me about ‘self-defeating inhibitions.’
This phrase nicely summarizes the collection of hurdles that deter progress and that cause so much frustration and despair.
Managing Inevitable Obstacles
Let’s say you want to find a way to undermine your tendencies to give up too soon or fail to abandon a wrong turn that feels good but isn’t getting you where you want to go.
Your effort isn’t paying off, but you only have yourself to blame. When this happens, the phrase self-defeating inhibition fills the bill.
When counseling salespeople about making cold calls, I often advised them to test the waters by making lots of calls…