Self-Negotiation

The inner voice is a powerful force. It is what drives action or inaction. It is who knows you the best. It is always around. The inner voice knows who you want to be while also telling you not to change. The inner voice is where self-negotiation comes into play. The inner voice of self-negotiation preys on moments of weakness.

I desire and want to wake up early and head to the gym. I say I desire and want this because the best version of myself is someone who wakes up early and attacks the day. There are hiccups. There are days over the last month when my alarm goes off and I shut it off and go back to bed. These days are the same days where my day gets started 2 or 3 hours later, where I feel behind, and where I do not accomplish everything I want to accomplish. I know I have the desire to get up early, but my biggest opponent to this is myself and that inner voice.

If I sleep in, it means I self-negotiated. I let my mind tell me I would get up in 30 minutes. 30 minutes came and that same voice told me I did not need to lift or run and could not understand why I even tried to leave the warm confines of my bed. That inner voice negotiated with me and told me the best action was no action. The best action was rolling over and going to bed.

The rest of my day told me the “best action” at 5:30 in the morning was actually the worst.

When my alarm goes off on other days, those same thoughts come rushing in. My inner voice has its full PowerPoint presentation prepared as to why I should not get up and why going back to bed was the best opportunity. My inner voice laid the offer out perfectly, all I had to do was think about it and say yes. I think about it for a couple of minutes and opt to decline. I sit up, get up, and move my body. I do not let my inner voice self-negotiate to hurt what I want to achieve.

Self-negotiating causes me to doubt. It causes me not to act. It causes me regret in the long run. Rarely will I have a positive come out of self-negotiating, and it is never positive when I listen to my inner voice early in the morning.

Don’t self-negotiate with yourself when you know what the right answer is. Just do it.