In order to start thinking about your personal gremlins you have to understand the two parts of figuring out who or what they are. First you must observe. Who knows you best? You do! To start figuring out your gremlin (s) you have to look at who you are and observe yourself through your eyes. Now I don’t mean looking in the mirror, everyone can see that you. What I am talking about is your inner self, the one that lives and breathes you. It’s the one that no one else knows as well as you. It is your hopes, dreams, feelings, guts, loves, disappointments, and oh so much more. Observe your inner you and record what it says about you.
The other part of the gremlin world is “simply noticing” (p. 7). Yep, that is it. Remember when I talked earlier this year about being still and just noticing. It is the same thing, but rather than noticing the things around you, look again to the inner self and notice how you feel, love, care, or process emotions and feelings. Once you notice the inner you, take it to the outer you. Use all your senses and notice the sound of your fingers typing, or the sound of a boiling pot of water, notice. Get to that level of awareness. That is what simply noticing is.
Okay, you are set. You know to observe and notice your inner self as well as are acutely in tune with your surroundings. Not all that easy if you are trying this for the first time. I remember I was annoyed by myself and the voices in my head, but that became my awareness of my gremlin!
While you go through the next few days observing and noticing yourself, think about some of the kinds of gremlins that seem to come into many of our lives. See if you can relate and I would like to hear from you if you care to share.
The General – The General is the gremlin that has to have everything in an order that cannot be mixed. There are strict rules for the General. He may be seen as the Boot Camp leader from Hell. Yep, that strict so there are no options, no place to grow or go, no ability to try anything outside of the rules that are in place.
The Artist – Carson describes this gremlin as the one that always paints the pretty picture for you, but just when you are ready to finish the picture, he changes the colors and you have to start all over again. It is the gremlin that may be heard saying “if only” and “what can’t I be happy”. This is a good one. The picture of what we want is in our head and we get close and he goes and messes it up.
The Hulk – The Hulk is the bully in our heads that doesn’t want us to be always nice and in order so that we don’t turn into that big green monster and get angry or upset. Remember the show? That is this gremlin. He doesn’t want you to release any strong feelings and rather wants you to sit quietly and say nothing.
The Big Shot – This is my George. Yep, he is the Big Shot. He is the one that says “Janice you are nothing and these people will never listen to you”. He works on my self esteem and talents like no one’s business. Yep, he doesn’t want me to be successful and puts all sorts of thoughts in my head about my ability and strengths.
The Coach – This gremlin takes on many of the athletic coach’s mentality that you and I have seen. The only important thing is to be number 1. Nothing else matters and you step on anything or anyone that gets in your way. If you lose, you are nothing. He will do anything and everything to win, at all costs!
The Grim Reaper – I like to call this one the Victim. It is the gremlin that wants you to believe that being beat up, put down, and walked over is okay. In fact it is the best that can be. It says it is okay to be the victim as it is your lot in life. Everyone else’s needs and feelings must come before yours. Know people who have this gremlin?
These are some examples from Carson’s book but there are many others. What was helpful for me was to come up with a “Woe is me list”. Yep, that’s right. In order for me to understand my gremlin so I could tame the little monster, I had to write the woe is me list.
My Woe is Me List
1.I don’t have as much experience as other people.
2.I just got my PhD a few years ago so I really am not that educated.
3.I’m okay to put others ideas out ahead of mine as they are going to be better anyway.
See the trend? Woe is Me!
What is your “Woe is Me” list? What statements do you have about yourself that are in no way positive? Write them down, look at them, own them.
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