Time Management Tips - 3 New Strategies to Conquer the Inner Critic Who Steals Your Time
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Paula Eder
Coach Paula Eder, Ph.D., The Time Finder Expert, has 35 years of success helping individuals and small businesses align time with values.
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TheTimeFinder By Paula Eder
Published on 03/25/2009
Time management tips boost your self-confidence when you use them to harness thoughts to effectively manage your time. Your first step is re-channeling energy that is funneled into self-critical messages.
Critical messages sap your energy, confidence, and creativity. Because they distract you, they can sabotage your best work, creating a vicious self-fulfilling prophecy. Fortunately, they can only interfere if you allow them to.
So, how do you start building self-confidence through overcoming your Inner Critic? Begin with practicing these 3 strategies to quiet those critical messages. You will experience the delicious pleasure of tapping your inner power as you move throughout your day!
3 Strategies to Conquer Your Inner Critic
1) Slow down and recognize the voice of the Inner Critic.
Catching the voice of the Inner Critic "in the act" is a vitally important
accomplishment. Like diagnosing a cancer in its early stages, zeroing in on your critical voice before it sabotages you provides you with time and power to neutralize it quickly. You may have become so used to these messages that they form a toxic backdrop to your life. It is crucial to slow down and develop the capacity to recognize this voice when it appears. Practice writing down the critical messages that you give yourself. You'll slowly come to recognize the tone and the themes of this voice. The critical voice is not very creative, nor is it very interesting. You'll probably quickly come to recognize its patterns and cadences. Then the trick is to spot it in the moment!
2) Once you recognize your Inner Critic's voice, simply name it.
This may sound obvious, but it's very important. Tell yourself calmly, "Oh, there is my critical voice talking." Naming it is a quiet step toward separating yourself from this voice. In naming it, you are building self-confidence by subtly claiming your own power to isolate faultfinding and reject it. Your inner critical messages hold power only when you believe them and react to them. Recognizing and naming the source helps you to see that the messages you are giving yourself are tainted and not to be taken to heart.
3) Don't be reactive to or try to argue with your Inner Critic.
If you treat your Inner Critic as if it were rational, you are setting yourself up for endless struggles. This voice is by definition critical and negative; it can't be argued out of its opinion. Counter critical messages with clear, grounded, factual information. Do it respectfully and calmly - getting angry or being reactive involves giving away some of your power. You might say to yourself: "I hear that you think I am really looking very foolish right now. The fact is that your perspective is off base and I am enjoying dancing. If I listen to you, I'll stop enjoying what I'm doing - so I am choosing not to listen to your opinion. That is what it is - your opinion."
As you can see, the key to dealing with self-critical messages is to recognize them, name them, and then respond from a very grounded, factual, adult place within yourself. Give them a voice, but not a vote. In this way you retain your power, and move forward to make the very most of your time!
Now, ask yourself: What is your next step to start building self-confidence and finding more time?
What if you could break free from the voice inside you that criticizes you endlessly? It's easier than you think! Simply practice these 3 strategies.
Time management tips boost your self-confidence when you use them to harness thoughts to effectively manage your time. Your first step is re-channeling energy that is funneled into self-critical messages.Critical messages sap your energy, confidence, and creativity. Because they distract you, they can sabotage your best work, creating a vicious self-fulfilling prophecy. Fortunately, they can only interfere if you allow them to.
So, how do you start building self-confidence through overcoming your Inner Critic? Begin with practicing these 3 strategies to quiet those critical messages. You will experience the delicious pleasure of tapping your inner power as you move throughout your day!
3 Strategies to Conquer Your Inner Critic
1) Slow down and recognize the voice of the Inner Critic.
Catching the voice of the Inner Critic "in the act" is a vitally important
accomplishment. Like diagnosing a cancer in its early stages, zeroing in on your critical voice before it sabotages you provides you with time and power to neutralize it quickly. You may have become so used to these messages that they form a toxic backdrop to your life. It is crucial to slow down and develop the capacity to recognize this voice when it appears. Practice writing down the critical messages that you give yourself. You'll slowly come to recognize the tone and the themes of this voice. The critical voice is not very creative, nor is it very interesting. You'll probably quickly come to recognize its patterns and cadences. Then the trick is to spot it in the moment!
2) Once you recognize your Inner Critic's voice, simply name it.
This may sound obvious, but it's very important. Tell yourself calmly, "Oh, there is my critical voice talking." Naming it is a quiet step toward separating yourself from this voice. In naming it, you are building self-confidence by subtly claiming your own power to isolate faultfinding and reject it. Your inner critical messages hold power only when you believe them and react to them. Recognizing and naming the source helps you to see that the messages you are giving yourself are tainted and not to be taken to heart.
3) Don't be reactive to or try to argue with your Inner Critic.
If you treat your Inner Critic as if it were rational, you are setting yourself up for endless struggles. This voice is by definition critical and negative; it can't be argued out of its opinion. Counter critical messages with clear, grounded, factual information. Do it respectfully and calmly - getting angry or being reactive involves giving away some of your power. You might say to yourself: "I hear that you think I am really looking very foolish right now. The fact is that your perspective is off base and I am enjoying dancing. If I listen to you, I'll stop enjoying what I'm doing - so I am choosing not to listen to your opinion. That is what it is - your opinion."
As you can see, the key to dealing with self-critical messages is to recognize them, name them, and then respond from a very grounded, factual, adult place within yourself. Give them a voice, but not a vote. In this way you retain your power, and move forward to make the very most of your time!
Now, ask yourself: What is your next step to start building self-confidence and finding more time?