Discover What’s Holding You Back
Saboteurs: Origins & Impact
Saboteurs begin as childhood guardians, helping you survive real or imagined threats. By adulthood, they’re no longer needed but remain hidden in your mind, influencing your thoughts, feelings, and actions through ingrained neural pathways. When triggered, they “hijack” you, making you act on their patterns.
There are 10 types: Judge, Avoider, Controller, Hyper-Achiever, Hyper-Rational, Hyper-Vigilant, Pleaser, Restless, Sticker, and Victim.
How They Affect You
Saboteurs thrive on fear, anger, shame, guilt, and negative self-talk, convincing you it’s beneficial. For example, the Judge tells you self-criticism improves you, but it only drains your energy and happiness.
Saboteurs cause stress, anxiety, self-doubt, and unhappiness, limiting your potential. Research shows only 20% of people reach close to their true potential because Saboteurs sabotage performance, well-being, and relationships.
Like touching a hot stove, negative emotions can briefly warn you, but Saboteurs keep you stuck in them, preventing solutions and growth.
Overcoming Saboteurs
The first step is awareness. Recognising your Saboteurs’ patterns in your thoughts, emotions, and actions helps you take control.
The Saboteur Assessment is a free, 5-minute tool that identifies your top Saboteurs and provides a detailed report on all 10 types.
Avoider
Focusing on the positive and pleasant in an extreme way. Avoiding difficult and unpleasant tasks and conflicts.
Controller
Anxiety-based need to take charge and control situations and people’s actions to one’s own will. High anxiety and impatience when that is not possible..
Hyper-Achiever
Dependent on constant performance and achievement for self-respect and self-validation. Latest achievement quickly discounted, needing more.
Hyper-Rational
Intense and exclusive focus on the rational processing of everything, including relationships. Can be perceived as uncaring, unfeeling, or intellectually arrogant.
Hyper-Vigilant
Continuous intense anxiety about all the dangers and what could go wrong. Vigilance that can never rest.
Pleaser
Indirectly tries to gain acceptance and affection by helping, pleasing, rescuing, or flattering others. Loses sight of own needs and becomes resentful as a result.
Restless
Restless, constantly in search of greater excitement in the next activity or constant busyness. Rarely at peace or content with the current activity.
Stickler
Perfectionism and a need for order and organization taken too far. Anxious trying to make too many things perfect.
Victim
Emotional and temperamental as a way to gain attention and affection. An extreme focus on internal feelings, particularly painful ones. Martyr streak.
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