Stand Up To Your Inner Critic - An Exercise
It's time to quiet the nasty voice!
My inner critic is rude, mean, and downright nasty!
He shows up at the worst possible times when I'm thinking, planning, creating, or taking action on something important, especially when I get out of my comfort zone. He hounds me wherever I go.
His negativity is incessant!
My inner critic is sly. His murmurs begin subtly as if he is a friend merely suggesting. If I pay even the slightest attention or show the slightest weakness, he attacks with all his force to take advantage of the opportunity, which causes me to become nervous and anxious and gets me off my game.
My inner critic is cunning; he knows my fears intimately, so he knows that to keep me down is to keep me in my comfort zone, afraid to try and explore.
My inner critic knows when I am weak and vulnerable and trying my best to get away from him, so he goes for the jugular and tries to finish me off.
As soon as I decide to take a step forward, he is there to sow doubt, talk me out of it, send me backward, keep me down, keep me on the sidelines, and keep me imprisoned.
Just yesterday, I gave a presentation to a group of designers at work, and of course, it came out with guns ablaze. He knows my weakness and showed up seconds before the presentation to sow doubt and distract me. He told me I would make a fool of myself and that no one would listen to me. He tried to convince me of escape routes I could take. Call in sick, or maybe the other presenters will go over time, and you won't need to present. He tried to bring the old Rizwan back and into his comfort zone, but his days of ruling over me are over.
I am putting a stop to my inner critic now!
He has terrorized me and kept me down for too long.
Now I have a powerful weapon to use against it.
As I was reading The Artist's Way at Work by Julia Cameron, I came across an exercise that has helped me stand up to my inner critic. The exercise is called Affirmations and Blurts. The goal of the exercise is to disarm our inner critic, so it does not go unchecked. This exercise is a brilliant way to face our inner critic instead of letting it roam free in our minds and show up whenever it wants to without questioning it. As with anything, practicing to stand up to it is a great way to lessen the harm it can do in our lives.
The Exercise:
Affirmations and Blurts - From the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
Write down an affirmation about yourself and your creative goal that you know will bring out your inner critic.
For example, "I, Lisa, am a talented and creative designer."
Next to the affirmation, write down the blurt, the negative, downright nasty, mean, hurtful statement your inner critic tells you as you make your affirmation. Listen to the inner critic when you make the statement and write it down.
Affirmation: "I, Isabella, am a talented and creative designer." Blurt: "No, you're not; what about the mistake you made in the last project?"
Write down ten affirmations along with their blurts, such as:
Affirmation: "I, Isabella, am an amazing and engaging presenter."
Blurt: "Yeah, right. Your voice doesn't sound so great!"
Next, rewrite each blurt into a positive statement, becoming your new customized affirmation to stand up to your inner critic.
Affirmation: "I, Isabella, am an amazing and engaging presenter."
New custom affirmation: "Isabella, your voice is fantastic. People love how you tell stories!
After going through this exercise, you will have a list of new custom affirmations you can repeat when you need to to ensure your inner critic knows that you are on to it and will not take the abuse any longer. You can print out the new affirmations or plaster them on your walls. Do whatever you need to do to stand up to your inner critic. The inner critic plays dirty, and it's time to stand up to it.
The inner critic knows how to get to you; it's been with you for so long it has become a part of you, a voice you may have taken as your own, but it isn't you. It stands in the way of your goals, dreams, and creative potential. It needs to be banished and put in its place. It's time to replace negativity with positivity and optimism.
You can do it; we can do it!
Podcast News
A change of name and a new episode.
The Low Fidelity Podcast is now Unleash Your Mindset! podcast. I renamed the podcast to make the purpose clearer. It is still part of the Low Fidelity creative platform.
New Podcast Episode Out Now!
🎙️In Ep. 14 of the Unleash Your Mindset podcast, I had an insightful conversation with entrepreneur, product leader, life coach, and writer Kevin Packer.
A few of the topics we discussed:
🧠 The "I'll be happy when.." mindset and how that can keep us playing small
🌀 An Upward spiral...to keep yourself from falling into a downward spiral
🎯 Personal OKRs...to achieve your goals
🙌🏼 Kevin also shared a great listener challenge to help you get started toward living your life joyfully and authentically.
Listen here: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/d8a9xLvOUtb
That’s it for this issue. Thank you for allowing me into your inbox for one more week. 🙏🏽
Have a wonderful weekend, and till next time, stay strong!
Cheers,
Rizwan 💜
oooooo your critic is nasty!! You are awesome, Rizwan!! Thank you for sharing this deeply personal message with the world.
I like calling it a blurt. haha It makes a lot of sense to acknowledge them so we can move past it.
Yesterday, I had a fabulous call with Agnes Ang who said that her secret is to add the word *yet* to any of the negative self talk.
For example: "I'm not great at Figma." changes to "I'm not great at Figma, yet."
By adding, yet. She says it helps put your mind into action mode. And that taking action then helps you prioritize and structure your moves to get better at something. Instead of keeping you in the box of negativity.
It blew my mind.
And it actually helped me get out of the perfectionist mindset, and launch the beta version of my website yesterday.
Good for you for getting outside your comfort zone and tackling this inner beast of negative talk.
You rock!!! keep it up!!