"What stops us from being successful is the critic inside."

What stops us from being successful is the critic inside that says, "You’re not very smart," "You’re not very talented," "You don’t know how to do this right," "You’re not as good as so-and-so," "You’re not as good as you should be," or "Look at what you did, that’s not any good," "That’s ridiculous," "That’s inadequate." We all have, to some degree, that self-criticism. Those of us who have allowed our creativity to flow in our lives have managed in one way or another to set our critic aside long enough to let the energy come through spontaneously.

Dealing with the inner critic is difficult; there’s no simple solution. The first step is to recognize your internal critic, to begin to notice what it says to you, and to begin to get in touch with where the voice comes from. For most of us, it began very early in our lives when we were children, when we received criticism from our parents or our siblings or our teachers or those around us, who said, "You don’t do that well enough," or "You didn’t do that right," or "You’re a bad boy or girl," and we’ve incorporated that criticism. Beginning to become aware of your inner critic, to acknowledge it and notice where it comes from, can start to free you from automatically believing it.

It doesn’t seem to help very much simply to try to make the critic shut up. The critic is a strong voice inside us. The key is to begin to notice it and to think to yourself, "Now, do I need to believe this?" "Is this really true?" "Do I have to let this run my life?" "Do I have to let this stop me?"

By asking these questions you can eventually get to a place where you listen to the critic, you acknowledge what it has to say, and then you go ahead and do what you want to do anyway. You could say to yourself "Okay, critic, thank you for sharing your point of view. Now I’m going to go ahead and do this, and even if it isn’t perfect, I’m going to do it anyway because I think it’ll be fun, or because I want to try something new and I’m willing to let myself be like a child. I’m willing to play, try something and risk and experiment and learn in the process. If I don’t do it perfectly, fine; I’ll do it again and I’ll do it better next time. Or I’ll forget it and do something else. It doesn’t really matter."

Creativity requires play. It requires fun. It requires a sense of adventure. Learn to look at things a little more lightly and not take them so seriously. If we take ourselves too seriously, we can’t have that adventurousness that allows us to explore in new places.

One good way to deal with the critic and begin to free more of your creativity is by using some clearing processes. If you have a journal or if you want to start a journal, try writing your creative voice and then writing any blocks or inhibitions you have about that creative voice. Or try writing the voice of your critic. Write it all down so you can see objectively what it is that stops you, what concepts of yourself you have that stop you from being able to be creative.

next ->