One of the best ways to tackle low self-esteem is stopping your inner critic. In yesterday’s article ‘Improving your self-esteem’ one of the steps I suggest to gain a more positive self-esteem is to catch the negative critic in you. Does a voice nag away inside your head constantly challenging you with nasty negative comments like, “You won’t succeed” or “You’re not good enough”?
This is your inner critic, a voice in your head that manages to find fault with everything you say or do. It’s the voice that says you’re not good enough to achieve your dreams. It’s the voice that bombards you with lists of everything you could and should have done better throughout the day. Some people’s inner critics are more severe than others, but in all cases it raises negative doubt within you.
The negative messages reverberating around in your head originating from your inner critic can be crippling and frequently will hold you back from reaching your fullest potential. For you to overcome self-esteem issues that are plaguing your life, it is essential that you can recognize and deal with the voice of the inner critic.
Unless you tackle the negativity from your inner voice, you will allow its influence to keep control of you. Your inner voice will talk you out of going after things that you know you can do, you can have, and you deserve. It becomes a voice of opposition that prevents you from taking action. It holds your life back.
Your Inner Critic exists, because your subconscious believes that it’s your protector. Over time you have programmed your Inner Critic through your beliefs, environment, upbringing, and social circumstances.
How often do you find yourself putting yourself down instead of building yourself up?
When you allow your inner critic to have free reign, allowing its thoughts to be your thoughts you are allowing it to determine your choices and actions, so ultimately to govern your success in life.
So putting a stop to this is essential for both your ultimate success and happiness.
Here are a few suggestions for putting a stop to your inner critic.
Hear your inner critic: Catch it in the act. You can’t make changes until you know what its saying and when it’s saying it.
Question its words: Ask yourself “What is the purpose behind this thought? Is this something that is constructive or destructive?”
Counter its View: Think of some of the achievements you’ve had that give contrary conclusions to what your inner voice is saying.
Find the Source: When your inner critic throws a strong negative reaction at you, take a moment to analyze it. Ask yourself, “Where are these feelings coming from?” Understand the origin of specific negative thoughts can help you take steps to prevent them from resurfacing in the future.
Refute its words: Refuse to accept the negativity. Stop it in its tracks. Don’t energise this negativity by giving it any credence.
Stay Present: The Inner Critic operates in the past, pulling evidence for its negative viewpoint from there. Stay in the present, deal with things as they are today, not yesterday, and not even tomorrow.
Replace Negatives with Positives: Positive statements are a great way to counter your negative self-statements. Use positive statements, or affirmations to support yourself – and do this every time negativity swells up inside of you.
These are just a few things that I have found to be helpful. As always, comments, questions, and insights are always welcome!
No longer allow that nagging voice in the back of your head to keep telling you that you’re not worthy.
Just think how much better life would feel if you simply stopped wasting your time listening to an overly-harsh inner critic and spent it instead on building up your self-esteem in the areas where it is weak, enabling you to think positively and succeed in the things that matter most to you.
As always we would love to hear your comments and questions. Please take a moment and let us know what you are thinking.
Are you letting the ‘ Inner Critic’ rule your life. Life Coaching can help you. If you want life changing coaching email me for further details. I only deal with a few clients each month, and those I choose have to be truly ready to take action. If that’s you, contact me today at coach@larry-lewis.com
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Thank you Larry. Stopping your inner critic is a process of building up clarity and focus to know what you really want out of life. It seems to me that we spend far too much time subscribing to what other people feel our life should be. It’s only when we have the courage to live life on our terms that we establish faith in ourselves to succeed and silence that inner critic forever.
It seems to me that we spend far too much time subscribing to what other people feel our life should be. Thanks for sharing.