Defining and Overcoming the Inner Critic

It’s having the courage to push forwards with ideas even when the inner critic is screaming in your ear. And that voice is laughing at you.

Oh, and asking you if you realise how ridiculous it is to pursue projects that will probably be seen by less than a hundred people. Oh, and many of the ones who see it will quietly think that what you are doing is absurd.

That is the voice of sabotage. The sense within that fear is something that you should run away from rather than pushing through it.

The Inner Critic summons up every moment in your life when someone laughed at what you did, when the teacher you best remember told you that you are rubbish at art ( insert your own versions here). It’s that moment when you did stand up and sing, and then realised that someone was laughing at you because you had the courage and they didn’t.

The antidote? There are no magic tricks. You can read copious books by Steven Pressfield and Seth Godin. They will deal with the block, with the underlying vanity that blocks your creativity. They will paint in sharp and bright colours what the Inner Critic looks like.

But at the end of it all, they have the same solution that everyone has. No rocket science. No magic tricks. Just set a timer and get started. Push forwards. Do it anyway. The art of starting is the art of overcoming the inner critic. Go forth and create.

(November Challenge 19/31)

Also published on Medium.