The Art of Projection

projection:  a : the act of perceiving a mental object as spatially and sensibly objective; also : something so perceived b : the attribution of one's own ideas, feelings, or attitudes to other people or to objects; especially : the externalization of blame, guilt, or responsibility as a defense against anxiety

This is just one of many definitions of the word 'projection'.

My experience lately has related to the above definition (specifically 'b') and I've been given many opportunities to see how I have been projecting my own ideas, feelings and attitudes onto other people.

The concept of projecting my shit onto someone else is not a new one for me.  I've been reading about it and hearing about it for years.  But living it, breathing it and recognizing it as actually happening is something I haven't practiced much.....until recently.

That is until one major projection came crashing down around me one fine spring day.


What I am learning about projecting onto others is, that eventually it does all come crashing down.  My take is that our ideas, fears and attitudes change and so what we project will change, thus eliminating the initial projection (sometimes not without heartache and regret).

The other part of this is that at some point you need to know the truth.  When a projection starts to crumble or becomes something you recognize as a pattern you have no choice really but to see exactly what the cause of all of this is.

Since we are beings that are in constant relation to everything around us, our projections will affect our personal and intimate relationships, they will affect our finances, careers and education.  They will affect how safe we feel with ourselves and our surroundings.  Simply put, you can look at anything in your life and see a projection.



Whatever you believe is true about your relationships, your finances, etc. is what you will project out into your reality.

We are literally masters in the art of projection!

But just as we are great at projecting out what we believe to be true, we are equally powerful in dismantling that projection and revealing the truth so that it can't cause us grief anymore.

What if you started to look around your life and decided to take ownership of why things are the way they are.  What kind of impact do you think this would have on your life?  

Note to self: get out of the way!

Does it ever feel like there is always something getting in the way of your success or holding you back from getting what you want out of life?

It often feels this way to me.

I can go along for months gaining momentum with each opportunity that comes up only to find that one day I wake up to a brick wall where there was no brick wall before!

I often wondered why this happens. 

Well, maybe "wondered" isn't the right term.  I've always known why this happens, I CHOOSE to ignore it, hoping it will go away!

Does this sound familiar?

For example, the one area of my life that could use a boost is my relationship with my business.

I can pinpoint exact moments when I sabotage this relationship and to be honest I am no longer disappointed when things don't go exactly as I had originally planned because...well....I know I'm sabotaging it.

So today someone asked me the question "in the deepest part of yourself why are you sabotaging your relationship with your business?" 

My answer shocked the heck out of me.

I replied "I'm afraid of becoming successful because then I may not have the time to spend with my family the way I want to spend it". 

I equate "success" with working like a dog 24/7 because that is all I've known, it's what I was taught.  I have not fully integrated the vision of success being whatever the hell I WANT it to be.  And the reality is it would look like having oodles of time to spend with my family!

The other thought I have associated with success is "who do you think you are, what have you possibly done to deserve success?"

The moment I spoke the words it felt utterly ridiculous.  Who is afraid of success?  What a stupid fear?  I'm so ashamed that I've had this fear and it's been holding me back...

But wait a minute....

In the moment I voiced that fear.  In the moment I finally acknowledged it's existence instead of sweeping it under the rug I felt a shift in my perception.

I had been holding myself back through indulging this fear.  It doesn't have anything to do with anyone but me!

I began to notice my whole body start to feel heavy, a calm and peaceful relaxed heaviness came over me and I could feel that the acknowledgement had somewhat released the grip that this fear had on me.

To me fears indicate a missing piece to a puzzle.  It's frustrating to have missing pieces to a puzzle, isn't it?  If we dig deeper into our fears we begin to uncover those missing pieces and bit by bit we can put the puzzle together and in doing so we make ourselves whole once again.

What is your biggest fear when it comes to meeting your full life potential?

Are you ignoring this fear hoping it will go away?

What is it going to take for you to release this fear and take the next step toward living an inspired life?