Be More Creative - How To Make Peace With Your Inner Critic

Trying to overcome your inner critic is a major struggle for most creative people. Just as you feel you start to make progress, that voice in your head pops up again, belittling your creative efforts and ridiculing your ambitions as an artist.

How many of these inner critic statements are you familiar with?

"Yeh, keep trying, one day you might actually create something GOOD..."

"What right do you think YOU have to be creative?"

"That wasn't a bad piece of work, but it was a fluke, a one off. You'll never be able to create consistently at that level... "

"Why do you bother to create stuff, you know you'll never be successful..."

"Isn't it about time you gave up your nice little hobbies and did something more useful?"

Ouch. You know yourself which particular nasty phrases appear in your head. Sometimes they seem so strong and so true that you don't even begin to create, it just seems too difficult, too painful.

Understandably, what most of us do is resent and dread this inner critic, and live in fear of it appearing with a well aimed cutting remark to destroy our confidence once more.

The inner critic becomes demonized, something we're intimidated by and feel helpless to ever tame or defeat.

And this is where the real struggle comes. Because we feel so helpless, as if our inner critic will always have the upper hand, and always be one step ahead ready to cut us down. It's this feeling of powerlessness that does the most damage and causes most frustration and pain.

But there is a different, more effective, approach.

Because we always see our inner critic as the enemy, we always approach it and try to deal with it as an enemy. We strap on our armour and go into battle, trying to beat it down and destroy it so it can never return.

Instead, you can learn to understand and embrace your inner critic. This radical change of tactics works like this:

Understanding: Your inner critic has strong motivations. Why else do you think it appears so regularly and with such force?

Everything your inner critic does is an attempt to protect you. You see, deep down, it's on your side. It's trying to prevent you from being disappointed, from being rejected, for having your dreams dashed.

It's not randomly reeling off comments just to hurt you for the sake of it. All your inner critic does is an effort to wrap you up and protect you.

Embracing: Once you see that actually your inner critic is on your side, you right away have a different attitude and approach.

Instead of hating your inner critic and being locked in a brutal battle where you're the only one who gets hurt, you can now engage in peaceful negotiations.

Each time that negative voice pops up, say something like this:

"Thank you for your concern, I know you're trying to protect me and have my wellbeing in mind. But I don't need your input on this. I'm an adult who's quite capable of making my own decisions. Creating in this way is important to me and I fully intend to continue, whatever you might say to me..."

The more you do this, the more your inner critic will get the message. It will always be around, you can't destroy it. But you can take away its power. As long as you remember that deep down its motives are good, then thank it but say you're going to carry on creating, whatever it may say, you'll find its influence on you becomes drastically reduced.

This is one effective technique to help you be more creative.

And I invite you to take the next step to being more creative today, by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook. Head over now to http://www.CoachCreative.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin