Vow to treat yourself like your own personal B.F.F . That inner-critic can be brutal.
As someone who has spent most of their life in and around creativity in some form or other, I’ve come to realise that my thoughts and beliefs about myself plays a huge part in my ability to be creative.
I’ve been through periods of my life when I’ve been really hard on myself. I’m my own worst critic, judge and executioner all rolled into one. If there’s anything I’ve learnt it’s this… Criticising, judging and listening to my inner critic can hinder my creativity and limit my potential. It’s stifling and paralysing.
When we are constantly criticising ourselves, we use self-talk as a weapon to attack our beliefs about ourselves. We often use language like:
- “I’m not good enough.” This type of negative self-talk can lead to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. Believing that one is not good enough can prevent someone from trying new things or taking risks, limiting their potential for growth and success.
- “I’ll never be able to do this.” Negative self-talk like this can create a fear of failure that can hold someone back from trying new things. When we believe that we’ll never be able to do something, we may avoid trying it altogether, which can prevent us from learning and growing.
- “I always mess things up.” This type of negative self-talk can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, causing someone to approach tasks with a defeatist attitude. When we believe that we always mess things up, we may be less likely to put effort into our work, which can result in making more mistakes and reinforce our negative beliefs.
When we are constantly going over and over thinking these things we can get ourselves stuck in a mood or pattern of behaviour. We form bad habits. Which in turn can limit our imagination and make it challenging for us to come up with new and original ideas. You know, when you’ve got that idea, that solution, that new way of doing something and it’s in the back of your mind, not fully formed into a cohesive thought but it’s just there… out of reach and you can’t quite bring it forward. Happens to me all the time and I’ve noticed that it happens real bad after I’ve been in ‘attack myself mode.’
I often think of this as a ‘creative funk’. And, we can determine how long we stay in that ‘funk’. It’s a choice to get out of it.
The best way to overcome the ‘beating up of ourselves’ is to make a shift in our thinking and then treating ourselves well and being kind to ourselves. When we treat ourselves well and are kind to ourselves, we boost our self-esteem and promote a positive mindset, which can encourage us to take risks and try new things. This can lead to increased confidence, which can stimulate our imagination and make it easier for us to generate new and original ideas and bring them forward into a cohesive thought that can be acted upon.
Being kind to ourselves can also reduce stress and anxiety, freeing up mental space to focus on creative tasks. Additionally, a positive self-image can foster resilience and perseverance, enabling us to persist through obstacles and challenges, which is also a key to the creative process.
If we are kind to ourselves and treating ourselves well we can tap into our full creative potential, while criticising ourselves can hinder our ability to be creative. It’s important to be mindful of the language we use when talking to ourselves and to focus on building a positive self-image. By doing so, we can unlock our creative potential and achieve great things.
What’s your self-talk like at the moment?
How do you overcome the days you want to be too hard on yourself? I’d love to hear some ways that you talk yourself positive. Let me know in the comments below?
I’m always keen to learn new ideas for getting out of that funk.
As a Certified Flourishing Coach I’d love to help you with your self-talk so you can be more creative so let’s talk more.
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