Eight months ago I received a letter about my pension plan at my former job.? More of a package than a letter, with a ton of stuff to read through and a decision to make about what to do with my pension money now that I am no longer contributing to the pension plan.
I looked at it at the time and it started to wake up too many inner critics and fear goblins so I noted that there was no deadline on it – and just filed it away.
And in the eight months since – every time I thought about dealing with it, my inner critics and fear goblins got so riled up I just put it aside again.
They had a lot of stories about how complicated and time consuming and stressful and annoying it would all be.
About how I’d probably have to go down to their office and explain my situation to someone.
Which is the Absolute Last Thing I want to do.
Can you see it?
“Hello, Pension Planner Person.? I quit my solid good paying nice job to play with glitter and sell magic on the internet. And no, I don’t want to stay in this pension plan.? I have magic on my side!”
So, yeah, lots of things to avoid and not want to deal with there.
Because I was believing the story that my inner critic was telling me.
About how I don’t fit in and no one will understand me.
And how my financial decisions are ridiculous.
Etc, etc, etc.
So I stayed away from the whole thing and over time, as the past eight months went by, the stories became more and more real.
And finally this week I decided to make it a priority and do whatever I had to do to get this settled.? I did remember somewhere there that some money was going to come to me when I sorted this out.? And the money would be handy right now as move into my Dream Loft.
So I quieted my inner critic and opened up the package and this time read it in detail.
Oh.
Not what I expected AT ALL.
Basically, I can take my money out whenever I want or I can leave it in and draw a pension when I retire.? That part is all cool.? I don’t have to make any life-long decisions right now.
And there’s some extra money, money that is not a part of the plan and is actually mine and needs to come back to me at some point.
So the reason why they wanted a response from me is just to send me money.
Money that would more than pay for the really super cute appliances I’ve been thinking about getting for my new place.
It took 5 minutes.? All I had to do was fill in the form and send it back.
And now I wait for my cheque while deciding which colour I want for my cute new fridge.
Inner Critics are sneaky and make things seem more complicated than they really are
They hold us back in ways that are so hidden we can’t even see that we are being held back.
Things look so hard but really they aren’t.
All these things you think you can’t do – you can do them.
You just have to stop believing the stories your inner critic is telling you.? And then all sorts of things become possible.
And then, you can take it a step further by getting your inner critic on your side.? And then the real magic can start.