Last Week We Offered a review of the monkey mind and related to the saboteurs in the Positive Intelligence Model.

In the words of Shirzad Chamine, Stamford University Professor and founder of Positive Intelligence,

 "Saboteurs are your internal thought enemies. They represent a set of automatic habits of your mind, each with its own voice, beliefs, and assumptions that work against your best interest."

While negative emotions can sometimes be helpful, it's important to consider the long-term impact they can have on our well-being. Recently, a client shared with me that he felt a rush of energy from hypervigilance that kept him buzzing. However, upon further discussion, he realized that this energy came with a cost

A period of low energy and exhaustion that followed.

It's not uncommon for us to become addicted to certain types of energy, such as the adolescent victim saboteur energy that fuels feelings of anger or despair. While these emotions may provide a temporary high, they ultimately harm our performance and happiness.

Society often promotes the idea that stress is necessary for peak performance or that self-criticism is key to improvement. However, this is far from the truth. While feeling pain for a split second when “touching a hot stove is useful” to our body protecting itself, Saboteurs  keep us stuck in negative emotions that harm both our performance and well-being. It's important to recognize and challenge these automatic habits of thought to cultivate a healthier and happier mindset.

Download my freebie The Three Steps to Building Your Optimist

Jennifer Degen
April 20, 2023

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