The "Inner-Critic-ectomy"
Posted on July 12, 2013 by David Taylor-Klaus MCC CPCC, One of Thousands of Entrepreneurship Coaches on Noomii.
We all have an Inner-Critic, a hyper-critical, judgmental voice that catalogs our failures, dismisses our successes, and diminishes our leadership.
In her comic strip “Rhymes With Orange,” Hilary B. Price wields her singular wit like a scalpel. It’s no surprise that she’s one of my top 5 favorite satirists.
In 2005, she created a rather poignant strip: “The Surgery.”
In the single-panel comic, a patient is in his hospital bed with bandages around his head … a doctor, still wearing his surgical scrubs, stands by the bed with a jar containing a small suited man floating in preservative. The caption reads: “Congratulations, Mr Meglin! We’ve successfully removed your inner critic.”
You can see the original strip here: http://coaching.co/10yWcYB
Wow! Wouldn’t it be great if it were that easy … a simple procedure to make that diseased voice go away. A pill. A tonic. A cure. Not so much.
There is no “Inner-Critic-ectomy.”
The ‘treatment’ is actually equal measures of Noticing, Recovery and Compassion:
• Notice when the inner critic is starting the rant, playing the old scripts, wearing you down.
• Recover control: leap to your own defense, shift your attention to where you are living your values, refocus your energy on your goals.
• Have Compassion for yourself. We all have our own versions of the inner critic. Its because we’re human. Give yourself a break.
Take a moment to think of someone you love – a spouse or partner, son or daughter, a parent, a best friend, etc. If someone spoke to your loved one the way you allow your inner critic to speak to you, you’d spring to his/her side is support! Yet you allow that inner voice to deride you, to bully you, to cut you down.
We all do. I still do … just not nearly as often – or for as long – as I used to.
There is now an orange on my desk to remind me of Hilary’s incisive comic strip, to keep it fresh in my mind. The truth is that silencing the voice of the inner critic doesn’t require surgery, just attention and intention.
I used an orange … what will help you remember?
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Here’s a little homework for you to try at home:
Notice the ‘voice’:
» What does your inner critic say?
» When does s/he show up?
» What silences your inner critic?
Here’s the hard, beautiful truth: at every moment, you are at choice.
What will you choose?
