You're Brilliant. And So Is Your Sabotage System.

by Agakura Viñas Burihabwa
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A sophisticated mind doesn’t sabotage loudly, it sabotages eloquently.

A sophisticated mind builds arguments, gathers evidence and is brilliant at telling a really coherent story.

“I’m not made for great things.” And then it explains why. Your temperament. Your sensitivity. Your need for depth. Your dislike of exposure.

And when you listen closely, you think: Yes… that actually makes sense.

And that’s the trick. Brilliant sabotage systems don’t feel like fear. They feel like realism. Like humility. Like maturity. Like knowing yourself “accurately.” They don’t say: “Don’t try.” They say: “Let’s be reasonable, that’s not for you.”

They don’t block your intelligence. They use it. They recruit your discernment, your pattern recognition, your capacity to see nuance, turning them into a convincing case for staying small, contained, or unfinished.

This is why dismantling these systems isn’t about positive thinking, affirmations, confidence or simply pushing harder.

You cannot out-argue a complex system that was built by the same complex mind you’re using to challenge it.

What helps is something quieter.

A question that doesn’t demand proof: Does this belief bring me alive…or does it keep me legible?

A noticing in the body: Do I expand when I say this about myself…or do I subtly contract?

Because brilliance aligned with truth feels spacious. Even when it’s uncomfortable.

Brilliance aligned with protection feels tight, convincing, and strangely final.

If you’ve ever talked yourself out of something meaningful with an argument so well-constructed it felt almost wise, there is nothing wrong with you.

It simply means your system learned how to keep you safe using the most powerful tool it had: your mind.

You don’t need to dismantle that system today.

You may just begin by noticing when your intelligence is being used to limit your aliveness.

That noticing is not naïve. It’s discerning.

And it’s often the moment where something quietly begins to shift.