She whispers, “You can take the day off, yesterday went well. No need to push yourself.”

And when I trudge onward, I hear the strain in her voice when she asks, “Don’t your legs feel strained and heavy?”

For good measure she adds, “It might rain.”

And as I work from task to task, all in support of the goal,

She never relents and never tires as she prods for weakness,

for she is my greatest enemy and my worst friend,

a siren, the obnoxious hater in my head.