InnerBliss: 8 Voices that You Must Silence to Live Your Dreams

Yes, another lily.

Listening to: Perfect for today.

Today's Bliss Formula: An actual summer-warm day today. It's making my head a bit humid. Instead of getting upset with my body's reaction to the weather, I will just find ways to allow for it -- some quiet and calm activities and perhaps a mid-afternoon nap. How delicious.

To be nobody -- but yourself -- in a world
which is doing its best night and day
to make you everybody else -- means to fight
the hardest battle which any human being
can fight and never stop fighting.

--e.e. cummings

At the center of your being, you have the answer,
you know who you are and you know what you want.

--Lao Tzu

Instead of being a slave to circumstances,
you decide.

--Ravi Singh

I encounter many people -- too many people -- who claim they don't know what they want, or that they can't remember what their dreams were when they were younger, or that there is nothing in this world that makes their hearts flutter with excitement.

I do not believe them.

On some level, when we tell ourselves that we don't know, we know we are lying. There is some comfort that we are deriving from not facing the truth. It is easier to stay stuck than it is to move forward. And so, we would rather remain sad or bitter or bored.

But, of course, for those of us actively seeking to live our blissful life, we know this is utterly unacceptable. There is no sad or bitter or bored that honesty and hard work cannot overcome. This life is for the living, not for the walking dead.

Like Rumi says, do not go back to sleep.

Yet it can feel daunting to move forward and there are so many internal voices that we must confront to find our wellspring of energy and enthusiasm. So many voices that we listen to, that we encourage by listening, that we believe.

I call these voices our "Internal Opera." An opera is dramatic, overdone, big. And it is easy to get caught up in.

So the first step is to recognize the Opera and the second step is to identify what particular singers you tend to gravitate toward. Those are the singers in this Opera that you are responsible for bludgeoning.

This may seem violent, this concept of bludgeoning, but what this Opera is doing to you is even more violent: it is stopping you from fulfilling your fullest, most brilliant, unique potential.

The Opera must die. And you must wield the weapons; no one else can do this for you.

But how? The Opera will die when you stop listening. That's it. It's that simple.

You can start by making fun of it. Mock it. Tell it it's off key. It has no musicality. It has no sense of staging. All the things divas don't want to hear.

When you do this, the voices will at first strengthen. They'll just turn things up a notch, thinking if they are louder, you'll succumb.

Do not. Just get meaner. Remember, this Opera is standing in your way. Let nothing stand in your way.

Who are some of these fools?

1. The Liar. This is the big one, whom I've already mentioned. It's the voice that tells you that you have no idea what you want to do or be or explore or learn. Get out the bat with this one, have no mercy. No liars allowed in your bliss life.

2. The Diva. She is the one who will keep you occupied with ongoing drama. She'll block you with seemingly "important" crises, spectacles, turmoils. Shut her down or you'll never get to the truly important work of your life. This is where you have to make some serious choices about priorities.

3. The Naysayer. This one tells you that even if you do know what you want, you can't have it anyway. Dreams are only possible for other people, not you. Who do you think you are? Show her your power; show her exactly who you are!

4. The Critic. Once you've figured out what you want and are on the road to that dream, the Critic will show up. At every turn, she'll tell you that you're not good enough. That your work -- and you -- will never be big enough, smart enough, beautiful enough. She'll stop you from trying to publish or she'll convince you that to be a "real" artist you have to have a certain degree. The best way to silence the Critic is to keep working regardless, keep trying, keep sending your stuff out into the world.

5. The Party Pooper. Much like the Critic, the Party Pooper comes along when you are already doing what you love, but she comes when you've had your first taste of success. No matter how "small" your first "yes" is, it is to be celebrated. But the Party Pooper says otherwise. She tells you that since you weren't paid, there is no celebrating. Then when you are paid, she'll tell you it wasn't enough. Nothing is ever enough for her.

6. The Wimp. You know what you want, but your fear stops you at every turn. Fear is the voice of the Wimp. She has no muscle, no stamina. She gets winded and she stops. She hurts a little and she stops. She believes in no pain. She rolls over in bed instead of getting up early. Living blissful makes for more blissful. The same as muscle. Don't miss your workouts!

7. The Task Master. The opposite of the Wimp, the Task Master never gives you a break. No matter how hard you work, it's not enough. She speaks from the same fears as the Wimp -- just a different message. Her main message is that you will never be able to catch up if you dare to step off the treadmill. She is a joy-sucker. Rest is important to dreams and bliss; it's about balance, remember.

8. The Procrastinator. We all know this one. She tells us that we have all the time in the world. She tells us that we can wait. She tells us that the world can wait for us. None of this is true. Every day we should be taking another step in the direction of our dreams. There are no excuses.

There are no excuses. Because (drum roll)...

You are the conductor of this Opera. That is where your power is. Put down the baton, step away from the riser, and leave the building. They will clamber after you; they will try to drag you back; but they cannot leave the building with you -- that is their only domain.

So leave. Then turn back and burn the whole thing down. Be done with it. Once in a while, a shadow of one of these voices will pop up, but you'll know it's just a shadow, because you finished them off for good.

Who is the strongest voice in your opera? What weapon would it take to kill them?