I am sure that I am not alone in the fact that I have a large army of demons in my head. These demons are always talking to me and trying to advise me about how to react to different situations. For many years I listened and took their advice, these years were not exactly happy ones and I have now come to realise that these demons are not my friends but are actually my enemy.
At the age of four, I developed a stutter which would continue to affect my speech for the next eighteen years of my life. I was aware of what I could and could not say and was also aware of the social situations in which I was more likely to stutter.
Whenever people asked me a certain question a voice or the demons would suddenly appear from seemingly knowhere and start making me doubt my ability to answer. This voice or what I call my demons would advise me not to say that word and to substitute it for a different word. I was desperate to receive some form of stuttering help.
At one stage in my life, I decided that I wanted a career change as I was not happy working at the DVD authoring company any more. My demons reminded me, that to find alternative employment meant going through the whole interview process again. They continued that I had always struggled to talk fluently at interviews, due to the pressure factor.
I could not continue to live life this way – I had to make a major change in the way that I lived and approached life. After reading many self-help books, I realised what I had been doing wrong. These demons are not my friends; they are not bearers of positive advice. They are in fact my enemy and they are in fact ruining my life. Steve don’t go to that party, OK then I will. Steve don’t phone that lady up, OK I will, etc.
I am not trying to say that this is easy to do. I am happy to say that I have eradicated my speech demons and am now fluent, however I do still have demons in other areas of my life. I am now run my own SEO company and I am at peace for the first time in my life.
