When Your Inner Voice Is the Enemy

This is something I’ve been aware of for some time, especially after reading The Untethered Soul: a lot of the time, my inner voice is my enemy. It’s the voice that talks me into skipping workouts, stressing out over what might happen in the future, or telling me to relax when there are tasks that need to be done.

Even after years of being aware of it, it’s always persisted. It almost felt like I had no control over it. This weekend I had a weird breakthrough that seems to be sticking.

I woke up and the voice started right away: sleep a little longer, skip the walk with the kettlebell, skip the burpees after the walk.

I kept pushing it off, but it kept talking. I grabbed my dog’s leash and the kettlebell and headed for the door. The voice kept going:

“Maybe skip the burpees after. I’m a little sore.”
“I can just do a short walk.”
“This kettlebell is heavy as fuck.”

As I opened the door, I said in my head, “Shut the fuck up,” and headed out. The voice got quiet. Any time it crept in, I said it again. When I got back and put the mat down for the burpees, the voice came back. I said it again and did them.

The voice started again this morning and I remembered something Jocko Willink says. I told the voice, “You don’t get a vote.”

This is just what’s working for me right now, but it’s been powerful.

How many times has your inner voice kept you from doing what you know you need to do?

— Bus

PS I’ll be releasing a podcast episode talking about this that’ll be out on Friday June 5th.