I haven’t always had a clear understanding of how to get where I want to go, but I have always had the ambition to do something great. If something world-changing isn’t in the cards, at least make a difference in my own little corner of it. Thankfully, I am not alone in this quest and there are plenty of people to learn from and collaborate with along the way.
One person I’ve learned a lot from is Richard Dolan. He’s mental performance coach to professional athletes, artists, actors, and business people all over the globe. I got connected with him when he was leading Grant Cardone’s Licensee program.
I have a journal full of notes from his coaching calls, but I wanted to share what he calls the three keepers with you. Becoming aware of The Keepers is the first step to working with them and keeping them from determining our futures. As “subconscious protectors of who you’ve been”, they operate in the background and have a large influence on the steps we take to author our future.
Have you ever felt like you knew there was an opportunity to get more out of life but felt held back from being able to attain it? The keepers could be holding you back. There’s plenty left I need to learn, but I did want to share with you some of my notes so that you can start noticing them when they manifest.
The keepers are natural human experiences, so none of us are impervious to their influence. But, with discipline and practice, we can put them under our control so that they do not govern our lives.
Judgment
Says "What will they think, say, or do?”
The keeper of judgment is an assessment or criticism of you that has the power to suffocate you the moment you step outside of your comfort zone. Judgment can be virtuous, but too much of it can freeze us from important action.
Ego
Says “Me, me me”
In his book Ego is the Enemy, Ryan Holiday defines ego as "an unhealthy belief in your own importance."
The keeper of ego tells us a story that is exclusively about what the person in the mirror is doing. Getting caught up in our own narrative inevitably leaves us getting in our own way and keeps us from making the contributions we’re capable of if we had just focused on the task at hand.
Fear
The vicious “what if…
…I get it wrong?
…Do it wrong?
…Am wrong?”
The anticipation of or awareness to danger, either real or imagined.
Seth Godin calls it the Lizard Brain. Steven Pressfield calls it The Resistance. These writers provide their nuanced take on something everyone feels. Fear manifests itself in thousands of different ways. Some are obvious, some are not. Whether real or imagined, it is not the end of the road. Fear will cause us to fight, take flight, or freeze at moments of decision. But it only takes a moment of courage for it to lose it’s power over us.
