Do you hear voices in your head that hold you back? Is The Gremlin of fear hissing, “You’ll never amount to anything!” or, “When are you gonna learn that ugly girls can’t do things like that?” or, “You’re not smart/pretty/talented/sexy/rich/wise enough!” when you start dreaming big?

Or maybe The Gremlin is spewing “You’ll never belong!” or, “What makes you think anybody would ever care about a book you would write?” or, “Get over yourself and know your place!” or, “Nobody will ever love you.”

So often, those voices stem from childhood. The Gremlin is just repeating things we heard from our parents or things we told ourselves when we were very young and impressionable.

And yet, those voices are powerful forces in our lives, and we may mistake them as truth, when they’re just bitter toxic lies spitting out of our minds like ammunition aimed at the jugular.