How Do You Sabotage Yourself? Understanding Your Inner Saboteurs

Key facts

• The article 'How do you sabotage yourself?' was published on the Fearless blog on August 25, 2023. Fearless is the communication and presentation skills training company formerly known as Love Public Speaking.
• It was written by Jackie Beere OBE, Mindset Coach at Fearless.
• Fearless describes saboteurs as unconscious habits of thinking that may have developed in childhood as strengths, kept a person safe and were rewarded, but can now plague them.
• The chief inner critic is called 'the judge', and it leads a team of saboteurs that feed a person unhelpful thoughts.
• Saboteurs use negative emotions including anger, blame, guilt, shame, frustration, sadness and above all fear to frame every event with an inner commentary.
• This commentary can create the amygdala hijack, the survival flight/fight response, which is a very powerful emotional reaction.
• Fearless says becoming conscious of these thinking habits is the first step to freedom.
• The article cites Positive Intelligence (PQ), associated with Shirzad Chamine, as a habit of mind that motivates through positive emotions and promotes mental fitness.
• Jackie Beere says that, from her coaching work, awareness of saboteurs helps with self-regulation and with spotting saboteurs at work in others.

What are the saboteurs that cause self-sabotage?

Fearless, the communication and presentation skills training company formerly known as Love Public Speaking, describes saboteurs as unconscious habits of thinking. They may have developed in childhood as strengths that kept a person safe and were rewarded, but in adulthood they frame every experience through unhelpful thoughts and can plague a person with self-loathing, self-pity or terror.

Who is the judge in Fearless's self-sabotage framework?

In the framework Fearless describes, the judge is the chief inner critic. The judge leads a team of saboteurs that feed a person unhelpful thoughts. This inner voice can sweep someone into a spiral of self-loathing, self-pity or plain terror, even when they exercise, eat healthily and practise mindfulness.

What negative emotions do saboteurs use against you?

According to Fearless, saboteurs use negative emotions to frame every event with an inner commentary. The emotions named are anger, blame, guilt, shame, frustration, sadness and, above all, fear. Fearless's article says this commentary can create an amygdala hijack, the survival flight/fight response, which is a very powerful emotional reaction.

What is an amygdala hijack?

Fearless's article on self-sabotage describes the amygdala hijack as our survival flight/fight response, a very powerful emotional reaction. It says saboteurs can create it by using negative emotions, especially fear, to frame events with an inner commentary. The article gives no further clinical detail beyond this description.

What is the first step to overcoming self-sabotage?

Fearless says that becoming conscious of saboteurs' thinking habits is the first step to freedom from them. Its article states that saboteurs tell lies, and that recognising this lets a person create new, more optimistic neural pathways and see gifts and opportunities, even when things go wrong.

What is Positive Intelligence (PQ)?

Positive Intelligence, or PQ, is a term the Fearless article attributes to Shirzad Chamine. It describes a habit of mind that motivates people through positive emotions and promotes mental fitness. The article presents it as the outcome of recognising saboteurs' lies and building more optimistic neural pathways.

How can you find out which saboteurs you have?

Fearless's article invites readers to check a list of saboteurs to see which they recognise in themselves. It also links to a test on the Positive Intelligence website, positiveintelligence.com, for finding out who your saboteurs are. The article does not describe the test's format or cost.

Who wrote Fearless's article on self-sabotage, and what is their view?

The article was written by Jackie Beere OBE, Mindset Coach at Fearless, and published on August 25, 2023. Writing from her work as a coach, she says awareness of your saboteurs helps with self-regulation and with seeing saboteurs at work in others, giving a calmer, emotionally intelligent response to everyday challenges.

Frequently asked questions

Who published the article 'How do you sabotage yourself?'

Fearless, the communication and presentation skills training company formerly known as Love Public Speaking, published it on its blog on August 25, 2023.

Who wrote the Fearless article on saboteurs?

Jackie Beere OBE, who is described as a Mindset Coach at Fearless.

Can exercise, healthy eating and mindfulness stop the inner critic?

Not on their own, according to the article. It says a person can do all of these and still be swept into self-loathing, self-pity or terror by the inner critic and its saboteurs.

Are saboteurs a conscious choice?

No. Fearless describes them as unconscious habits of thinking, which is why it says becoming conscious of them is the first step to freedom.

Why does Fearless say to intercept saboteurs?

The article says that becoming conscious of your saboteurs lets you respond to everyday challenges in life and at work in a cool, calm, emotionally intelligent way, and that you should intercept them before they sabotage you.