Silencing the inner critic

Image: Francesca Marino

"If you hear a voice within you saying "you are not a painter," then by all means paint... and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh.  

Change is scary, and the mind is sneaky - it tends to create a million justifications in order to keep the status quo.  One of its methods is the inner critic - the voice inside your head that tells you that your dream is totally impossible; that you are crazy to even consider following that path and that it is much more sensible to continue what you're doing now, and not challenging yourself. 

When I was working at my old job, I would dream of opening my own life coaching practice.  My stomach would do a flip, and I'd tell myself that it was crazy.. here I was - pregnant, earning a decent salary and thinking of giving it up to follow an uncertainty?  Surely I should get clients before I quit my job? 


Sometimes it is sensible to stick with what you have, and sometimes it is just fear talking.  Here's how you can make the choice from an informed rather than purely emotional place.


Clarifying your goals
How clearly can you describe your ideal scenario?   A good practice is to spend 5 minutes with your eyes closed and picturing your ideal future - use as many of your senses as you can. What are you doing? Where are you? Who is with you?  How do you feel? etc.  Once you have a clear vision, write it down and be as specific as possible.   


How to get there
Once you have clarified your goal(s), it is much easier to identify what you need to achieve it.  I would advise starting small and aligning your actions so that they lead towards your ultimate goal.  For example, my goal was to open a practice as a life coach, and so I studied and practiced while I was employed.  I applied my knowledge at work, and although I couldn't feasibly make any changes for a while, I made sure to not lose the vision, and kept making baby steps towards it, making contacts, setting up systems, etc.  I was slowly preparing myself for what I wanted.


10:10:10 principle
When my job was made redundant, I saw this as an opportunity.  Rather than apply for the job that I was confident I would get (it was a promotion from what I was doing before), I decided to be retrenched and use the opportunity to chase my dreams.  To make the decision I applied Suzy Welch's 10:10:10 principle, assessing the consequences of each decision 10 minutes, 10 months 10 years.  (I assessed the short, medium and long term consequences, keeping in mind the future I wanted).

What if you were to work towards your dreams anyway, creating the opportunity for yourself to follow? For example, you might not realistically be able to quit your job or devote the time you need to start a new business, but you CAN start to plan and gather informaion (like phone numbers, names, suppliers, etc) and do all the background things that will keep you focused on your vision, and help speed up the process when you're ready to go for it!


So, what can you do today to help yourself get even closer to your goal?  It may be as simple a start as making a list of what you can do that will move you forward, and then commit 15 minutes a day to doing it! 


Youuuuu can dooooooo eeeeeet!

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