Most of the time, the inner critic doesn’t look like an inner critic.
A few weeks ago a good friend texted me early in the morning. “Talk?” I called right back.
A client had asked for a tweak to her work. She’d done the correction and re-sent the finished project. Then she was up all night in a panic, thinking she’d misinterpreted the request and ruined the finished product.
Maybe you think I’m going to write about perfectionism. But that’s not it. Where the inner critic tricks us is that it makes us think we’re the only one.
I said to my friend, “This is so normal. You’re in demand. Your success is building. You feel vulnerable. Ain’t no way around this moment, sweetie….as small business owners, we all go through it.”
And with that, she calmed down.
I just finished a program with 50 leaders at a Fortune 500 company. This is a group of successful professionals. Yet, as always, one of the principal learnings they shared was, “Wow, it’s good to know others are dealing with the same issues.”
So if you ever feel like you’re the only one, you’re not alone! (Get it?) Seriously, whatever it is you think you are doing wrong, or not understanding, or don’t know. You are not the only one.
Here’s the solution: Share your struggles. If my friend hadn’t called me, she’d still think what she was going through was some reflection of her inadequacies. Find someone you trust, and share.
Remember, everything we go through, someone’s gone through it before. Thinking we’re alone is just one more way our inner critic tricks us, but you can outsmart it!
Have a great week,
Claire