Self-sabotage: Why do we do it and how do we overcome it?

SALT LAKE CITY – The five hazardous attitudes were initially for pilots to reference in their decision-making. However, we can all learn something from those attitudes, such as why we self-sabotage and how we know if we’re doing it.

In the latest Let’s Get Moving with Maria podcast episode, Maria Shilaos spoke with Ricky Brown, pilot, speaker, and author of The Five Hazardous Attitudes: Ways to Win the War Within, to learn how we can overcome self-sabotaging behavior.

 

Brown says you can minimize self-sabotage by conquering the five hazardous attitudes, which are anti-authority, invulnerability, macho, impulsivity, and resignation.

Anti-authority causes a person to say, “You can’t tell me what to do.” Invulnerability causes a person to say, “Consequences happen, but they won’t happen to me.” Macho is an overinflated sense of self ability that causes people to take unnecessary risks. Impulsivity causes people to act before they think. Finally, resignation causes people to feel like they can’t make a difference.

“The good news is that each of these five hazardous attitudes has a call-responding antidote. An antidote is just a way of saying, ‘This is how you overcome it,’” Brown said.

In the pilot handbook by the Federal Aviation Administration, the antidote focuses on what you say. Don’t just think, say it out loud. Understand the power of your words.

“We have to just watch our language, not just when we’re talking to other people but also when we’re talking to ourselves,” Brown said.

Related:

• Don’t beat yourself up over emotional eating

• Understanding mental health issues as a public health threat

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