I wanted to know more, so I got a highly sophisticated scanner, and I can tell you who these voices are: They are a board of 7 advisers living in an unexplored region of our brain  .
They work together and are all busy with the business of our life! They listen, look and feel our world through our own senses. They are working as a small team in charge of our safety, because believe it or not, they are responsible for our security and they take their job very seriously!

Their intentions are excellent as they only want to protect us.
And so, when needed, depending on their specialty, they whisper in our ears what they think we should do. That are the voices that you hear, absolutely!

However, despite their good intentions, things don’t always go well. Sometimes some adviser becomes too influential and if we don’t pay attention, they can make us forget who we are and what we are capable of.
If you hear “Don’t say that, it’s obvious “or” Don’t depend on this person, you will be dumped “or” Don’t do that, it can’t work “and if you follow all these tips, you will be led by your little advisers, you will not take any risk, you will do less and less and you will lose confidence in yourself.

To live with this board of advisers without living entirely by their views, we must know them well. They all have their own personality . For instance this adviser exaggerates everything but is not entirely wrong so you learn to take his advice cautiously. Or that other one speaks rarely and is very wise so you learn to listen with attention.  As you become more familiar with them, you can use them more efficiently.

It is certainly a good idea to hire a coach to help you manage them, but as a start, I give you here a brief description of each adviser, and especially how to recognize them when they talk to you.

Our 7 Inner Advisers.

Selfestim wants to reduce your risk of being rejected by others. So he whispers:
“These people are smarter than you”
“Stop dreaming, you’re not their type”
“your idea is not good, keep it for yourself, they won’t even listen”

Safe wants to avoid any physical hurt because his specialty is your good health. So he whispers:
“It’s too steep, you will not make it”, “It’s dangerous, you’re gonna break something”

Timid wants to avoid any social or professional mishap. Your confidence and your image are his concern. So he whispers:
“You can’t go, you have nothing to wear” “Everybody will make fun of you”

Emo wants to avoid you from feeling any emotional distress. His ambition is the flatness of your electrocardiogram. So he whispers:
“Don’t be too hopeful, you will be dumped” “Don’t go see this horror movie, you will have
nightmares” “Don’t get a pet, you’ll get attached and it will die”, ” Don’t go back there, there are too many bad memories”

Perfect wants you to be above criticism in everything you do. So he whispers:
“It’s better to abstain than fail” “Don’t stop it’s not perfect yet”
“Don’t decide yet, you don’t have enough information”

Watchout wants you to be ready for the worst and it scans for clouds in the blue sky of your projects. So he whispers
“Careful!!!” “Develop a Plan B in case your Plan A does not work”

Toonice wants to avoid conflicts and always please others first. So he whispers:
“Take care of others first, it’s the most important” “Let it go otherwise there gonna be a fight” “Say yes now, then we’ll see”

Selfestim, Safe, Timid, Emo, Perfect, Watchout and Toonice:  That’s the board of inner advisers who want our good but can paralyze you if they become too influential. For example, if Safe is overactive you might just stay home fearing an accident. On the contrary, if Safe is almost inactive you are a daredevil stuntman. Our advisers are most useful when their level of influence is kept tuned to the mid-point … and is kept there by you.

If you want to know your team of protectors, particularly which ones are too active or not active enough, let me know and I will send you a questionnaire to measure them. Then you can choose to work on your own or with your coach to tune each one’s  influence.