Modern Woman\'s Toolkit, Boston MADo you remember the skit Saturday Night Live has done on Debbie Downer? The woman who is known to be a complete kill-joy and reminds everyone that she comes in contact with her all that is wrong with the world and in life in general?

The skits are absolutely hilarious and SNL does a great job at depicting what I’m sure you can relate to even in your own life with someone you may know.

You may also recognize at certain times your own Debbie Downer within you. You’ll recognize her when you hear things like: “What if you try it and you fail?” “What if people don’t think you have anything important to say?” And the classic of them all: “Why bother, it’s not going to matter anyway.”

She usually rears her little head to create doubt when we’re going after a goal that is real important to us and we’re excited about.

Many of the books you’d read on the market today would tell you that this Debbie Downer within is your ego. That is partially true. The ego gets a bad rap now-a-days. Your ego is actually your personality. It what makes you, you. It’s not the part of you that you want to take guidance from necessarily but it does animate your actions and gives you the light to express yourself in your own unique way.

Your wounded ego on the other hand, is the little Debbie Downer inside you. A part of you which is scared, small, and simply wants to protect you from getting hurt or making mistakes. Without getting into all the reasons why we have a wounded part of us, the important thing to know is that it exists and it simply needs to be acknowledged.

Often I’ll hear clients refer to their Debbie Downer to be the “Why bother?” voice. “Why bother working-out it’s not going to make a difference anyway.” “Why bother starting that side-project, it will most likely fail in this economy anyway”. You get the picture.

So what to do when you hear that “why bother” voice? Acknowledge her, thank her for the protection and then follow your heart and do it anyway.

Here’s some soul work for this week: Think of a goal or project that you get chills when you think about manifesting and bringing forth into your life. Maybe it’s a weight loss goal and you know how good you’d feel once you accomplished it. Or, maybe it’s a work goal - to get a certain number of new clients this month.

Whatever the goal, notice the excitement that builds up in your heart when you think of accomplishing it. Then, pay attention for any of the Debbie Downer voices that crop up. If it helps write them out and recognize them for what they are. “Ahhh, that’s just Debbie trying to protect me and make excuses for why this won’t work”.

Then, tune-into your heart again and listen to your desire and answer for yourself what your true desire is. Then, imagine if you did bother (working-out, getting new clients, etc.), what would happen. Let me know how this exercise goes. I’d love to hear all the reasons why bothering would make a tremendous difference.

Have a great week!