Don't Pay Attention to the Yah-Buts

What exactly are Yah-Buts anyway? Well the best definition that I can give here is the yah-but is the negative chatter that we all experience in our minds from time to time. The internal demons that if left unchecked will destroy even the best of ideas.

Your Thought - "I have a great idea that will this or that!"

The Yah-But - 'Yah but, what about this or that?"

There is an old African proverb, "When there is no enemy within the enemies without cannot hurt you."

So the Yah-Buts are very real. And many of us deal with these demons on a day to day basis, and any negative thought (Yah-But) will cause us to possibly procrastinate, and procrastination is enemy of all great accomplishments.

Another reason that we might hear that little voice within telling us "Yah-But....." is that we are afraid of the unkown, the untried, Fear is another enemy of success.

So how do we get over the fears that can paralyze our success?

Well let us look at what fear really is... In doing so let me share with you the following acronym for F.E.A.R.

False
Evidence
Appearing
Real

Franklin D Roosevelt (32nd President of the United States) in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933 with the country in the midst of the Great Depression stated, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Well that comment is as true today as it was the day Roosevelt proclaimed it.

Fear is something that is perceived in our own mind, and then built up to the level that it might cause us to experience "analysis paralysis" and that can cause us to stop dead in our tracks.

Now of course if we believe that it is real then it is... But, if we refuse to accept it, if we refuse to believe it then it is just a perceived reality that we can deal with. So if we refuse to accept the cause of our fear, is it real? No... It is just our overactive imagination working in overdrive.

So how do we learn to ignore the Yah-Buts? Well a great exercise that I have found and taught to many of my clients is the Rubber Band Technique. The concept is quite simple actually, you put a rubber band on your wrist, and whenever you have a negative thought you simply pull the rubber band out and let it snap on your wrist. The exercise draws your attention to the fact that you had a negative thought and that you have acknowledged it as such, and that snapping will alter your thinking pattern after a while. Now some people need to go through a few rubber bands before they cure themselves of the negative thinking habit but if you do so you are well on your way to being a much more positive and motivated person.