threadwalker: (Default)
threadwalker ([personal profile] threadwalker) wrote2007-04-19 11:28 am

Why do we sabotage oursevles?

You know who you are. When you say

"I'm cutting potato chips out of my diet," you binge on nachos.
"I'm going to pay off my debt," you drop a bunch on a credit card.
"I'm going to clean my house," you promptly leave the house for the day or plunk down and do anything but clean.

Or how about,
"I'm going to stop tearing myself down," and the first thing you do is find fault with yourself.

Why do we sabotage ourselves? Has someone convinced us we are supposed to fail? Are we afraid of success? Are the goals so lofty we've set ourselves up to fail? I do this and it boggles me.

Today I am going to focus on not sabotaging myself.

[identity profile] hrj.livejournal.com 2007-04-19 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Success is not a trophy that we win once and can set up on the mantelpiece -- it's the progress up an endless down escalator. Failure is the sump in the basement of our souls: the seepage is constant and pump maintenance is a bitch.

[identity profile] falzalot.livejournal.com 2007-04-19 07:39 pm (UTC)(link)
When you figure out the answer, please share. :->

[identity profile] joycebre.livejournal.com 2007-04-19 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
so many reasons - the adrenaline rush you get from doing things at the last minute,
the fear that you won't excel at something, paralysis from the perception that the task is too big or too hard; goals that are too vague, or open ended.

Catholic guilt

[identity profile] dakini-bones.livejournal.com 2007-04-19 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
at least in my case
lol!

[identity profile] dame-cordelia.livejournal.com 2007-04-20 01:41 am (UTC)(link)
I'm very good at starting projects up to the point that I know how to finish them. The my little magpie brain starts looking for another problem to solve rather than continue what I was doing. It's completing something that doesn't happen quite so easily.