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Debbi McCullough and Charlie Jett are certified Positive Intelligence Coaches who discuss the “Saboteurs” identified in Positive Intelligence.
Saboteurs are a universal phenomenon. Unless you tackle and weaken your own internal enemies – we call them “Saboteurs” – they will do their best to rob you of any improvements you make.
These are the voices that – through the Positive Intelligence System – you need to turn down the volume so you can hear the voices of your wiser inner-self. Understand that you cannot silence them or get rid of them. They are built into your left brain. But you CAN diminish their effects.
The question is not whether you have saboteurs, but which ones you have, and how strong they are. They are universal-spanning cultures, genders, and age groups-because they are connected to the functions of the brain that have focused on survival.
So – here they are.
The Judge
The Judge is the Master Saboteur, the one everyone suffers from. It compels you to constantly find faults with yourself, others, and your conditions and circumstances. It does so under the pretense of being rational and reasonable and trying to be helpful.
The Avoider
The Avoider focuses on the positive and the pleasant in an extreme way. It avoids difficult and unpleasant tasks and conflicts.
The Controller
The Controller runs an anxiety-based need to take charge, control situations, and bends people’s actions to one’s own will. It generates high anxiety and impatience when that is not possible.
The Hyper-Achiever
The Hyper-Achiever makes you dependent on constant performance and achievement for self-respect and self-validation. It keeps you focused mainly on external success rather than on internal criteria for happiness.
The Hyper-Rational
The Hyper-Rational involves an intense and exclusive focus on the rational processing of everything, including relationships. It causes you to be impatient with people’s emotions and regards emotions as unworthy of much time or consideration.
The Hyper-Vigilant
The Hyper-Vigilant makes you feel intense and continuous anxiety about all the dangers surrounding you and what could go wrong. It is constantly vigilant and can never rest.
The Pleaser
The Pleaser compels you to try and gain acceptance and affection by helping, pleasing, rescuing, or flattering others constantly. It causes you to lose sight of your own needs and become resentful of others as a result.
The Restless
The Restless is constantly in search of greater excitement in the next activity or through personal busyness. It doesn’t allow you to feel much peace or contentment with your current activity.
The Stickler
The Stickler is the need for perfection, order, and organization taken too far. It makes you and others around you anxious and uptight.
The Victim
The Victim wants you to feel emotional and temperamental as a way of gaining attention and affection. It results in an extreme focus on internal feelings, particularly painful ones, and can often result in a martyr streak