You are your own worst enemy. And so am I.

Did you know that the chances that you'll be robbed in old-fashioned Hollywood style (by someone who hides his face behind a bandana, wears a hat and has pistol against your lovely head) are astonishingly small, really? Much smaller in fact than the press and your well-meaning granny will make you think.

It's also quite possible that you'll be able to hop through life without getting kidnapped (again) by some criminal masterbrain who demands a fat ransom for you. Imagine the astonished look on the faces of your little children when they hear that news while eating their healthy cereal breakfast. I also dare to bet that most of us won't ever have to hide in a small alley while FBI-agents are getting in a gun fight with drunk ninjas who work for an international drug cartel.

So, please relax. But don't relax too much, because I'm here to remind you that your own worst enemy is really quite close to you. Just take a look in the mirror. A succesful blogger named Tynan has written quite well about 'your evil twin', Rick Carson wrote a book called 'taming your gremlin' , but the Buddhists have already spoken for thousands of years about your inner critic.

I think that Tynans post was the best. Go on and read it, but I'll give you the main point right here. Imagine that you have a twin brother who is exactly like you. The same cute nose, the same eyes, the same job, and so on. He doesn't like you, that fellow. He wants exactly what you want. As a kid, he probably dropped his Brussels Sprouts on your plate, and grinned when your parents made you eat them. As a teenager he stole your big love (the daughter of the grocer) away, leaving you standing there holding some roses and the cauliflower you had just bought. He's always trying to steal your thunder, and you already know his strategy. You could have done it too, but he got there first.

Now, let's leave Tynans idea, or rather, let's build on it. You know the strategies that you should follow, but you just don't do it. You hesitate. You procrastinate. You tell yourself you should learn more, earn more, be more first. So you do nothing. That's the inner critic talking. And I really think he has the same voice of your evil twin. This is the gremlin that Rick Carson talks about. He's so ingrained in your mind that you don't even notice him anymore.

And this is were the ancient antidote of mindfulness comes in. Carson calls it the 'zen theory of change' in his book. It's as ancient as it is wise and I'll paraphrase it here.

' I free myself, not by trying to be free, but by simply noticing when I'm imprisoning myself' .

This is how you deal with the critic. First you notice him, and then you can decide consciously if you want to listen to him or not.

In most cases, you'd better adapt the 'evil twin' strategie: do exactly what your worst enemy would do if he wanted to steal whatever you want in front of your nose. Just think about the wise words in the immortal James Bond song 'live and let die' :

What does it matter to ya
When you got a job to do
You gotta do it well
You gotta give the other fellow hell.