We all have an inner critic…that little voice in our head that tells us that we are going to fail at our endeavor, that we’ll never reach our goals, that we basically suck. Our ideas suck, our dreams suck, our aspirations suck…you get the idea. It tells us to pull back on our expectations, to just give up because we will never accomplish anything worthwhile. Sometimes it tells us those things in a kind concerned voice. It tells us that it’s just protecting us from failure and/or making a fool of ourselves. It stealthily undermines our self-confidence. Other times, it’s a stone cold bitch spewing pure venom and telling us that no one will ever love us, we’re too fat and ugly, we’re stupid, we have no talent, and we don’t deserve to have all the things about which we dream…that we will always be a failure so just accept it. The question that always comes to mind after my IC has laid into me is, would we let a so-called friend talk to us that way? Would we keep them in our lives if they undermined our creative efforts and told us over and over again that we were going to fail? I think (hope) that the answer is a collective NO. So, why do we keep letting that voice in our head play us like we’re marionettes…pulling our strings in all the wrong directions and leaving us dangling? Why do we believe anything that it says? We shouldn’t. The second that we hear that little voice, we need to tell it to get the hell out of our head. We have to stop paying attention to it and keep reaching for our dreams. But we all know that it’s not that easy. The closer we get to realizing our dreams, the louder and more desperate that voice becomes. That’s when we have to turn to our Inner Wise Self for guidance and encouragement. And we have to believe what it tells us because it knows what we’re capable of when we believe in ourselves and our dreams. So we must let our Inner Wise Self counter every single lie that our Inner Critic tells us. And just keep believing in ourselves and our creative talent. We might not be able to completely shut down our IC but we can definitely put up a fight and prove it wrong by continuing to pursue our dreams in spite of what it whispers in our ear and then crush it with our success. So, keep on dreaming and creating. We’ve got this.
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh
Inspired Writer 