Self-Sabotage: What It Is And Why You Can Stop It

It’s easy to forget just how powerful our subconscious minds can be. We are often completely unaware of how our actions (or inaction) are affecting our lives. We may complain that things never work out for us, we always seem to have bad luck, or we just don’t have what it takes to be successful.

But what many people fail to realize is that they are actually creating their own circumstances through subconscious self-sabotage (so in other words they have no idea they’re actually creating their own problems).

But since our subconsciousness is just that, a subconsciousness, it’s seemingly out of our control. But that’s a fallacy. We can counter our subconscious self-sabotage by using our conscious awareness; we need to take a deeper look into how we feel and what we fear – but we have to do this on an intellectual level (which doesn’t mean you need to be a genius by the way). By doing this we’re able to pinpoint any reason for behaving that is counter-intuitive to our ambitions. Once we realize what the issue is, it’s much easier to plan the next step in overcoming our self-sabotage. But in order to recognize the issue, we need to know exactly what happens we sabotage ourselves.

When we have something we want to accomplish, say losing weight, it’s very important to want to achieve that goal both on an intellectual level and on a subconscious level. You see, when overweight people constantly fail to lose weight, or just fail to keep it off; it may be for a number of reasons. It may be because they are scared of the outcome on some subconscious level. They might feel like their fat is protecting them from the outside world; protecting them from reality. It may provide a shell for their insecurity. And suddenly, losing weight isn’t a happy ever after solution anymore: it’s a threat. So even though might say they want to lose weight, and firmly believe that on an intellectual level, they’re subconsciously sabotaging their diets or workout plans rationalizing it by promising themselves that they’ll try harder tomorrow.

Those who self-sabotage may also be afraid of what others will think of them should they accomplish their goals. They might not believe they’re worthy of the outcome, so they act in ways that will ensure their failure. These destructive efforts are done subconsciously, so even the saboteurs have fooled themselves into thinking they know what they want. If there is any uncertainty in their mind, any doubt, any fear, they will find a way to make sure it doesn’t happen. Perhaps this describes you? Have you sabotaged yourself in the past? Are you still doing it now? Are you not able to move forward with your goals, no matter how hard you try?

Fortunately, anyone can overcome self-sabotage. The most important step to stopping self-sabotaging behavior is to recognize that it’s happening (and that’s not always easy!) So what’s required is to develop a conscious awareness of our thoughts, emotions, and actions.

You may have tried to accomplish something for a long time without success. If this is true, it may be time to stop and think for a while. Think back. What kind of setbacks and obstacles have you experienced? If you were to experience that right now, would another, perhaps wiser, choice be to enough to overcome that obstacle? Recognize the patterns; is there a certain type of obstacle that’s constantly holding you back? Could it be that a certain fear is preventing you from succeeding? Ask yourself: “Why would I sabotage my ways to accomplishment?” This might be able to give you an answer to your problems.

When we finally understand that we are in control of our own success, we will be set free from all limitations! By developing clarity and insight about the outcomes we want to create, and the awareness for potential setbacks, we can stop the self-sabotage and focus our energies on working toward new goals that we will fully support in every way. We will then look back one day and see that instead of being our own worst saboteur, we have become our best supporter.

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