Are the Voices in Our Heads the Biggest Gatekeepers?

Context: I love to listen to Akimbo, Seth Godin’s podcast.

You probably know Seth Godin as the guy who blogs every day. Or as the person behind several bestsellers. Or as a marketing expert.

Whatever the case might be, there’s no question about it: this man will get you thinking.

So, as I was saying, I love listening to Akimbo.

In this podcast, you typically hear Seth rant (that’s what he calls it) about different topics: education, marketing, writing, entrepreneurship…My favorite part is that he always does it from different perspectives, and he usually tells lots of stories to get his point across.

Towards the end of each episode, there’s a section for listeners to ask questions. In a particular episode, called "Honest Signals", one listener submitted a most fascinating inquiry. In fact, Seth himself said he would just leave it unanswered since it was such a powerful one that he didn’t really have much to add.

The question was: “Are the voices in our heads the biggest gatekeepers?”

Oh, my.

I bet you know the answer:

They freaking are.

The voices in our heads are the ones who whisper stuff like, “No, you are not good at this. No, you can’t do it. No, this is not for you. No, you will never be able to do what you want.”

Those voices, they rarely shut up. And they have a particular talent. Whenever you dare think that maybe, just maybe, you have a shrug of potential, they come and knock that feeling right out of you. They seem always to be watching you. They won’t let anything go by.

Sometimes, they play tricks on you.

You seem to be doing well. That project you have been working on is really taking shape. Your eating and exercising program is really giving you the results you need. Your writing is on track. You have been working hard, and it is starting to show.

Cue the voices:

“You are a failure you never do anything right you will fail as usual you always mess things up you have always been fat and you will always be fat you do not know what you are doing your photos are not as good as X person’s photos your writing sucks your marketing plan sucks too you suck you suck you suck…”

It’s like they don’t even stop to catch their breath.

They are, in fact, THE gatekeepers.

And they go with you everywhere. All the time.

Bummer…

What the heck do we do about them?

I have been thinking about this since the moment I heard this episode. And it is tough, mainly, because these voices implanted themselves in our brain during our formative years. And I mean formative as in during the period when our minds, the programs that run us, were being created.

Most of these voices were born when one of our parents made an off-hand comment on how we weren’t good at solving problems. Or maybe when a teacher said we just didn’t know how to write correctly. Or a bully called us stupid. Sometimes these voices come from darker places, like someone who abused us. Or from the repetitive message we get all over mass media: you are not enough the way you are, you need to get X product if you want to be a full human being.

And so we go about life with these voices inside us. And it’s extremely hard to not believe in them.

I propose a little experiment.

For one day, which may as well be today, whenever one of these voices tells you something, do the exact opposite. If a voice in your head tells you that it is useless to start writing your book because “you won’t even finish it,” then go ahead and type for at least 10 minutes. It doesn’t matter what comes out of it. Do it.

If a voice tells you that it is pointless to exercise because “you will forever look like a pig,” immediately drop to the floor and do as many push-ups as you can. You only managed to do 1? Awesome. You freaking did it. The voice is wrong.

Perhaps one of those voices swears that your YouTube channel will never get a single subscriber and, therefore, there’s no point in creating your first video. If that’s the case, then stop whatever it is you are doing, so you can record and immediately upload your welcome message (oh, and add the link in the comments, so we can watch it and say hi).

Repeat the experiment as often as possible. Heck, go crazy and repeat it every day. In any case, do not listen to the voices. I mean, haven’t you heard?

The gatekeepers are gone. We are free to create. To send our message out there so we can connect with our tribe. So they can connect with us.

The voices don’t know what they are saying. And together, you and I, we will prove them fucking wrong.

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Gabriela Rosales shares her life with a husband, a son, and 9 dogs. She currently works as a high-school teacher in a Mexican border town by night, and types Medium articles and screenplays by day. Yeap, in that order.