Don't Listen! - How To Beat The Critical Voices In Your Head
Are you keen to achieve your goals, but get held back because you are a habitual self-criticizer? Are the voices in your head telling you that you will not amount to much and that you would be better to quit?
Try not to worry too much. Firstly, you are not alone. Millions of people hear the voices that say: "You are not good enough". "You can't do it as well as that other guy". "They won't like it". "You will never finish that". "It is beyond you."
Secondly, there are three easy ways to beat them.
- Do it anyway. The first step in drowning out those voices is to just get cracking and do whatever it is that you set out to do in the first place. No matter what seductive reasons they whisper in your ear, just keep going and get it finished. They're not real; it's just you talking to yourself.
- Do it the best you can. No one can do more than their best. Anyone can do less, but the point here is to make absolutely sure that whatever you do, you do to the highest level of your ability. Others might be able to say that whatever you produce could be better, but never give them the chance to say that you did not try your utmost.
- Let the world decide. Now this is where you may well be very pleasantly surprised. You have gone ahead, despite the best advice of your self-critical faculties; you have performed at your finest level and now you have presented your master work to the world. It is highly likely that the world will give your baby a much kinder reception than you might have dared to hope for. Our self critical voices can be very harsh; much harsher than other people and the real perception of what you create will be very different.
There will be criticism, of course, but this will be the kind of criticism you can take and use to make your next version even better.
So, next time the voices in your head get too loud, hit them with these three action strategies and see how much more you get done.