self-sabotage
/sɛlf/ and /ˈsabətɑːʒ/
noun
- the act of undermining a personal cause
- any underhanded interference with personal productivity and work
- the act or process of hampering or hurting ourselves
- the act of deliberately stopping ourselves from achieving success
Dear Self-Sabotage,
I’m a perfectionist. It’s a strength, and it’s a weakness. It’s a strength because it pushes me to excel, but it’s a weakness because if I weigh the chances of success, and decide that they are low, I tend to get stuck; or worse, I don’t even try.
You’re that inner voice that keeps telling me I should be working harder, and if I’m not, I’m already doomed. You’ve chained me to a work ethic that’s rooted in believing that I’m not doing enough because I myself am not enough. And so my efforts feel like I’m punching a wall.
I know some of your other lies, too: “No one will care about what you have to say!” and “It’s already been done – except better!” and the most severe, “You’re running out of time – your window of opportunity has already passed!” It’s the most defeating one because it kills hope; and well, “hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life”.
I can barely think for all the lies you scream at me. And that’s your whole point isn’t it? To stop me from thinking, and therefore doing, and being.
I’m enormously talented. Yep – I said it! The opposite has been so ingrained in me for so long that it even feels like a lie to say this – but it’s true. And it’s for that reason –my talent, my drive, my opportunity to give to a world so in need of love and beauty – that I am parting ways with you.
The enemy within, making way for the strength to fight the enemy without.
I will not doubt my success, anymore.
I will not expect to fall as I rise, just because rising feels so far from the ground.
I’m going to touch the sky!
This is farewell, and I’ve sealed it with a prayer and a mustard seed.
So then, goodbye, old friend.
And good riddance!
More than a conqueror,
Dusty
“Unless we learn to know ourselves, we run the danger of destroying ourselves.”
― Ja A. Jahannes, WordSong Poets
“So I forgive what was taken from me/ I will be free from the picture you paint you see / Tell them ‘these troubles are out of your hands’/ Tell them ‘you’re free to use them to clap and dance.’” – Seinabo Sey, Pretend
theDustySoulDiary 