Page 94 - Taming Your Gremlin A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way (Rick Carson)_Neat

they will be suited to capturing and holding your attention. You will find
yourself dying to know the ending of the movie and forgetting that the only
real ending is to leave the theater or to not take the movie so seriously.

After all, it’s just a movie.

The problem in this whole scenario was not Sarah’s relationship with a
sexy man or even John’s relationship with Sarah. The toxic relationship
here was the one between John and his gremlin. John was giving his
gremlin far too much attention. Instead of simply noticing and hearing his

gremlin’s chatter, he was seriously considering what the gremlin had to say
and hoping to disprove it. He was grappling with his gremlin.

John continually went over and over the facts, fantasies, and questions
raised by his gremlin, hoping to think through the whole matter and arrive
at a peaceful, all-conclusive, lasting resolution. A far better idea would have
been to use the first step of our Gremlin-Taming Method: breathe, relax,
and simply notice his gremlin’s chatter without becoming involved with it.
He might even have chosen to grapple with his gremlin for a while. The key

word here is chosen.

Choosing to grapple with your gremlin is far different from being
unconsciously sucked into participating in a misery-making wrestling
match with him. When you grapple by choice, you retain some control over
the grappling. Even by choice, to grapple with your gremlin is always a bit
risky. Gremlins are tenacious, and once they have you involved with them it