A powerful everyday tool: Overcoming Yourself E71
December 6, 2022
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I am going to introduce you to a powerful tool called Overcoming Yourself. After listening to today’s episode you will understand what overcoming yourself means and how you can use it as a powerful everyday tool instead of something that feels too difficult.
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If you have anything in your life that you would like to change, then overcoming yourself is part of that process. If we want to change, we have to leave parts of the old self behind and cross the threshold towards a new version of ourselves. Sadly the person that is standing in the way of you changing most of the time is you. Yes, the biggest barrier to overcome when you want to change is your current self.
The concept of overcoming yourself
We will talk about later how this shows up in your life and I will give you 3 examples of where you can start to overcome yourself. But first and most importantly I want to talk to you about the concept of overcoming yourself. Listening to me talking about it, you probably have a perspective or an opinion on this tool or concept.
You might not fully understand yet what it actually means and therefore you have not decided yet if this is something easy or difficult to do. Or you have already tried it out in some way or another and think that this is not as easy as it sounds. Or you love this tool and you use it all the time.
What I like you to discover is that this tool is very powerful in the process of change. It is an essential ingredient in changing your life. And I want you to see it as something that can be fun, light-hearted and playful. That way you are actually going to use it instead of dismissing it as being difficult and hard.
It does not have to be difficult and just hard work
Now as part of my research and preparing this episode I googled the words: overcoming yourself. And if I wouldn’t know better I would be put off by the descriptions that I read on the first page. Let me give you a few examples:
- Overcoming yourself refers to conquering and defeating that part of you that stops you from setting, striving and achieving your goals.
- Have the courage to confront yourself. First, you have to face yourself…
- We need to overcome ourselves. I can only blame myself.
- Overcoming yourself is better than overcoming a million enemies in battle.
Uff, this sounds like a lot of work, hard work. And don’t get me wrong, there are times that it can feel like that. I have situations where overcoming myself feels difficult and takes quite some effort. But I don’t want you to get the idea that it’s just hard work and always difficult. Because if you do, you are not going to use it. You are going to look for something easier, something that sounds more achievable.
Overcoming Yourself can be a game to play
That’s why I want to share with you another perspective. A way to look at it as a game that you can play on a daily basis.
First, let’s look at the benefits of using this tool. Overcoming yourself means discovering yourself. And for you to change something in your life, it is essential for you to first become familiar with your current self. How could you change into a new version of yourself, when you don’t even know where to start? So the first benefit of this tool is that you get to know yourself better which is a helpful foundation for any change that you want to make.
The tool helps you to get out of your own way
The second benefit of this tool is when you are in the middle of the process of change. When you know that part of changing is overcoming yourself then you will be aware of it, look out for it, identify it and deal with it. Have you ever tried to change a habit or stop a habit and were not successful? In that case, you did not overcome yourself but returned to your old self.
Maybe you are talking about making a specific change in your life for months or years but nothing has happened yet. You have just not overcome yourself yet. You are stuck with your current self. So being aware that overcoming yourself is part of the change process is a huge benefit.
Example 1 – Your environment trying to hold you back
Let me give you a few examples of how this can show up in your life when you try to change. These examples will help you understand the tool better and show you how you can straight away apply it after finishing this episode.
Let’s say you are trying to change something in your life, so you redirect your energy and time towards that change. Maybe you want to create a new self-care practice in your life or a new hobby that allows you to follow your passion. But suddenly little or bigger things happen around you that want a bigger chunk of your time.
Maybe one of your kids wants more attention, maybe work has given you an additional project which would mean working longer hours, or your partner comes up with an idea of doing something together which would mean losing the time you wanted to make for yourself.
This all seems like things that you have no control over. But the control you have is not letting these things stop you from following your passion or looking after yourself. If you allow these things to take the time you put aside for yourself, then you just returned back to your old self. This is an opportunity for you to overcome yourself and still make the time for that hobby or your self-care practice.
And that might mean saying no to certain people or ideas. If you are truly ready to change, and you are so fed up with being the old self, don’t let yourself be stopped by things popping up in your environment. Because they will. But now you know about the tool of overcoming yourself and so you can apply it.
Example 2 – Your body wants you to stay the same
The second example I share with you is about changing your emotional state. Let’s say you have realized recently that you are carrying a lot of anger inside of you and you no longer want to feel like that. So you want to change the emotion of anger, you want to feel less of it. You want to change it to a better emotion like love, peace or freedom.
Now, your body is used to feeling angry on a regular basis. You have been giving your body for years and years the chemicals that produce the emotion of anger and it got accustomed to it.
So what will happen is that the body wanting the same old emotion might use situations in your life to feel it again. And these might be situations that you have never been angry about before. Or it might be people that you have never been angry with before.
Because you are trying to change and feel less angry in the situations you are already aware of, the body goes: OK, what other situations can I then use to feel anger again? Because that’s what I have been getting over the last years and I want to keep feeling it.
That is the perfect place to apply the tool of overcoming yourself. You become aware of what is happening and that the body is doing this to get you to stay as your old self. That feels familiar, that feels right.
With your awareness that overcoming yourself and in this case, the body is part of the process of change, you can spot these situations and decide differently. When you have the awareness, you have the choice to think, act or feel differently.
Example 3 – Limiting thoughts will keep you stuck
For the third and last example, let’s say you have a goal or a dream of something you would love to achieve. You know that you have to change in order to achieve this goal. Two things that happen quite often in these situations are that we question if we can ever achieve it. Based on what you have experienced so far in your life, you suddenly question if it ever would be possible. So your thoughts try to limit your goal or try to diminish it based on your past life.
That is a point where you want to overcome your past self and say that anything is possible. You want to stop these limiting thoughts or beliefs that keep you connected to your current self. Because if you listen to them and believe them, accept them to be true, then you will not change and never achieve your goal. That makes sense, right?
And the second thing that happens in these situations when we have big goals or dreams, is that the mind will look to the future and not see how or when this would ever come true. Your mind comes up with self-doubt and self-criticism. It will come up with a worst-case scenario to keep you where you are currently at.
It feels safer here, here we know exactly how our future is going to look like – exactly how our today and yesterday looked like. So it is nicely predictable. Giving in to these kinds of thoughts and not overcoming them, means again that you will not change and you will just stay exactly where you are today.
Learn how to overcome yourself and join the program
I hope all of these examples gave you enough understanding of the tool Overcoming Yourself. If you want to become really good at this tool and become a really good investigator in your life, then join me in the ENERGY ACADEMY. In this program and group coaching experience, you will learn the tools to overcome yourself every single day. If you are ready to make changes and you feel like you don’t know how then join us in the program.
One of my recent students said to me: I tried everything else to change my life. And nothing worked. But going through the program and having now these tools, I know I can finally make the changes I always just dreamed about.
If you have tried so many things before and are ready to learn one more thing, I promise you: This is it.
Two easy ways to show your appreciation!
If you found value in today’s episode, here’s what you can do to show your support:
First, consider making a donation to the podcast. Every little bit helps to cover the costs of producing and hosting the show. And ensures that I can continue to bring you the latest insights and opinions on the topic of energy and improving your life.
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So whether you choose to donate, leave a rating and review, or both, know that you’re an integral part of my vision. You are helping everyone who struggles with burnout or high-stress levels to experience how awesome their life can be. So, thank you for your support!
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