Hi, this is Monique Rhodes. Welcome to the In Your Right Mind Podcast, where we're learning how to be happier by working with our minds.
If you’d like to know more about what I teach, come to MoniqueRhodes.com, I’d love you to join me for the end-of-year Flying Start Workshop — it’s the most amazing way to begin the new year.
Feeling Stuck Despite Your Best Efforts
Many of us experience moments where we know we’re smart, capable, and informed — we’ve read the books, listened to the podcasts, even created vision boards — yet we still feel stuck. You wake up with big ideas, but by the end of the day you wonder where all your energy went. You start meaningful projects only to find yourself spinning your wheels. You dream of change, but somehow repeat the same patterns.
The Real Issue: Your Mind’s Stories
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: it’s not your schedule, your skills, or your circumstances.
It’s your mind — and specifically the stories it’s telling you.
Your mind is a master storyteller. Its primary job is to keep you alive, and it’s incredibly good at that. It has cataloged every failure, embarrassment, or moment of rejection you’ve ever experienced. It stores these moments so it can help you avoid similar pain in the future.
But this survival system has a flaw: your mind can’t easily distinguish between discomfort and danger.
When Growth Feels Unsafe
When you’re about to try something new — pitching an idea, applying for a job, speaking your truth, or walking away from something that isn’t right — the mind often goes into red alert.
It says things like:
- “This feels unfamiliar, and unfamiliar is unsafe.”
- “This could go really wrong — let’s not do it.”
- “You’re not ready yet. Wait until you’re perfect.”
You listen, not because you’re weak or unmotivated, but because the mind’s fear-based voice can be loud. And often, we haven’t learned how to distinguish between the voice of truth and the voice of fear.
A Student’s Story of Overcoming the Inner Critic
I had a student who dreamed for a decade of writing a book. She had a powerful story and a deep desire to help others. But every time she sat down to write, her mind told her:
- “You’re not a real writer.”
- “You’re too late.”
- “Who are you to share this?”
Year after year, the book stayed inside her.
When we worked together, I encouraged her not to silence the doubt but to notice it. To say to that voice, “I hear you. I know you’re trying to protect me. But I don’t need protecting right now — I need courage.”
She wrote one page, then another, then another. It wasn’t easy, but with every page she taught her mind that this wasn’t danger — it was growth. And that book is now out in the world.
Your Mind Isn’t the Enemy — But It’s Not the Boss
The problem is that we often treat our mind as an unquestionable authority. If it says something, we assume it must be true. But the mind is a machine built on memory, habit, and survival. Unless we consciously rewire it, it will keep running old programs — programs based in fear, limitation, and the belief that staying small equals staying safe.
But here’s what’s truer:
You were born to grow.
You were born to expand.
You were born to do things your ancestors only dreamed of.
And you can’t do that while waiting for your mind to give permission. It won’t. You have to move first.
How to Move Forward
Start by noticing the voice of limitation. Don’t fight it — name it. See it for the protective pattern it is.
Then call forward a different voice: the brave part of you that knows your potential, even if you haven’t lived it yet. Act from that part, even in small ways — especially in small ways. Every time you take a step, you show your mind that you’re not in danger. And over time, the fearful voice quiets.
You don’t need fixing.
You don’t need to be more disciplined.
You need to take small, courageous actions while feeling afraid — trusting something deeper than the chattering thoughts.
Your mind will always offer a thousand reasons to stay where you are. But you only need one reason to grow: your future self — grounded, free, expressed, alive.
The world is waiting for you.
As always, be kind, take care, and go gently in the world.
Thank you.
