The stories we tell ourselves to deflect from doing the things we dream of doing are wonderfully written. They’ve got nuance, detail and incredible dialogue. In fact they’re masterworks of searing influence. Marv, (that's the name I give to the internal critic – that voice in our heads that keeps us afraid and unwilling to take risks) works with our imaginations and together, they're like a team of brilliant filmmakers in our minds. They are the very crew that makes all our creativity possible – let’s call them Dreamators Ltd., except in this case, they are working against our dreams. Marv get’s them riled up and says:
“Look Dreamators, I’m afraid Peter’s going to get himself into some serious trouble with these ideas of his. I need you guys to get busy coming up with a movie that we can put up on the screen of his consciousness to stop him, hell, we can even play the thing as he sleeps, but it’s got to be convincing, it’s got to make him understand that he will fail and when he does he needs to see how much harm the failure’s gonna bring him. He’s gotta understand that failure means death. There’s no other way to convince him. Peter’s a smart guy so we’ve got to put him in touch with some of his most vulnerable emotions. You know, the ones he’s carried around since childhood. He’s got to be made to feel that if he fails and makes himself look bad, he’ll be cast out, shut out, cut off, rejected, friendless, loveless, hopeless and alone. Make it look tragic. You can do it guys I know you can.”
The thing to remember is that the stories we tell ourselves are as powerful as the creativity we muster up to pursue our dreams. In truth, they are one and the same. The more creative we are, the more creative the Dreamators are. The one thing that breaks the cycle is when we recognize just what’s taking place in our minds. When we understand that the negative feelings that crop up to quell our dreams are really the products of our own fruitful imaginations, we need only begin to take the specific small actions towards our goals. When we do that, we change the Dreamators directives. Instead of working for Marv, they immediately begin working for us.
