My Serious Case of the Yips
It all started when my husband peeled a hard-boiled egg over my in-law's kitchen sink.
“You need a lesson on that?” his father asked, peering over his shoulder.**
Brian chuckled. “Sure, you got a better way?”
For the record, I've been successfully peeling hard-boiled eggs every morning with one crack for decades. The result is a smooth egg with a puffed chest patiently waiting to be salted. On the rare occasion it gets messy, I deem it an errant bad egg experience.
Still, after this exchange, I tried the new, improved method of multiple cracks, which Brian said made sense. But whatever meat wasn't landing under my nails was sticking to the shell and going down the disposal.
By the time I declared I was returning to my old ways, it was too late: I had The Yips. No matter what I did, my once wholesome egg looked like the face of a picked-over-acne-ridden adolescent.
Until one day, when I stopped concentrating on it, and my mind was elsewhere (which is called being in a “flow state”), there was my intact, glistening egg.
If I had a dime for every time I second-guessed myself when presented with a different idea, I would have published my book and ten more by now.
But likewise, there are times when we negate incoming information, insisting our way is the only way until our “right” idea is alone on a desert island screaming “Wilson!” at the volleyball drifting out to sea.
How do you know if you’re abiding by your intuition or behaving out of unconscious, self-sabotaging defense mechanisms?
News Alert: It's not from thinking about it. It’s not from writing pros and cons lists (though those can be useful), and it’s not from hashing it out with a bunch of friends whose opinions further muddy your own. Remember, that’s often how you got in the mess in the first place.
The only way to undeniably determine what is right for YOU (which may or may not be right for someone else, and that’s OKAY) is to learn how to quiet one center of your brain and open another.
Oh, and by the way, when you master this, it has been proven that in addition to better egg-peeling, your relationships go smoother, you perform better at work, and your health and wellness improve.
I’d love to help you determine what is right for you — check out my offerings HERE.
