There’s you and the goals and dreams you have for your life, and then there are distractions. Things that get in the way. Whether you’re trying to create a business or wanting a relationship, there’s always something that comes in between where you are and where you want to be.

You want to get busy on your business or whatever it is you want, but there’s laundry, food shopping, cleaning, family responsibilities, and dogs to walk.

At least, these are the justifications – the excuses we use. But this is typically not the reason you don’t have what you want.

Do you want to know what’s the biggest distraction? Here it is:

Your biggest distraction is your SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.

In all honesty, when it comes right down to it, being overly self-conscious - about my body, my words, my voice, my ideas – has been the biggest distraction in my life.

I have spent years worrying about what others will think about me. Do I look too fat, too old? Will people think I’m boring and ineffectual? Will they judge and criticize me for my point of view?

So much time wasted. And there I am left sitting on the couch, hiding out with my old familiar confidants – self-consciousness and insecurity.

Several years ago, I began see what was going on with me. I got wise to it. I realized that when I gave into my self-consciousness – when I allowed it to get in the way of my dreams and goals – I was left with nothing. The fear I felt offered no solution. And I soon got fed up with myself. I got bored with being self-conscious.

I’m always going to feel self-conscious. It isn’t going anywhere. But what has changed is my relationship with it. It doesn’t get to close me down. It doesn’t get to scare me into thinking I could die if I show up, use my voice, and just be myself. It doesn’t get to do that now.

Many of us are going through life believing we are naturally insecure and not good enough. We’ve bought into that belief. At what point did we decide we were insecure?

We (innocently) make up these distinctions – these beliefs about who we think we are – and then we suffer from them. We all do it. It’s not some weird thing that some people have, and others don’t.

But when we see it for what it is, it doesn’t hold us back in the same way.

The next time you’re distracted by insecure and self-conscious thinking, see it for what it is. Send it love and compassion. Thank your brain for doing the job it’s supposed to do - alert you. And watch your dreams and goals bow at your feet and unfold before your very eyes.