This critic within can be the harshest of all, and yet often I don’t even realize the havoc he is wreaking on my life. Wreaking. Is that a good word? When we set out to accomplish our dream, we make goals and determine the disciplines we need to form in order to have a successful journey.
If we are not careful, we can become a negative voice to ourselves, dishing out criticism instead of positive reinforcement.
It is not helpful nor healthy to merely beat ourselves up for everything we are doing wrong. Some may call this self-discipline, but that’s not what it is. It’s self-abuse.
The key here is a perspective shift: we must work to turn the inner critic into the inner coach.
Of course we will fall short. But our inner coach reminds us to learn from the failure, to see how we could have done it differently, and then to focus on doing better the next time. Finally, our inner coach reminds us to be grateful for a stepping-stone to a better future.
Let’s remember that a consistent pattern of engaging positive thoughts and ideas will strengthen our inner coach and silence our inner critic. Here’s the good news: they have separate volume controls … and we have sole possession of the dials.
- Exercise:
Are you beating yourself up inside in the name of self-discipline?
What’s one area of your life where you can take control of the inner critic?
Integral Development Forum 