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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

 
  • About

    headshot: David Beroff in St. ThomasDavid Beroff started writing software at the age of 11, and was teaching Computer Science at Rutgers University by the time he was 18. After designing software for two decades, he started his own Internet marketing firm in '95; one of his company's earliest successes was Freedback.com, a free feedback-form service that was later sold to Wondermill.

    Beroff had bought and sold four million voluntary, opt-in email leads generated with properties like LeadFactory and SuperTAF before the business failed in '07. He is the author of the book, Turn Funny Email into CASH!, and is currently developing a new social media site, AboutTh.is.

    He has two grown children, and now lives outside of Scranton with his girlfriend and five cats.

  • Contact

    If you have any questions or concerns about our website and/or our advertising, please feel free to email me directly: David (at) Beroff (dot) com.