Things my inner critic told me when I wrote Happy:
– You’re not smart enough to write this
– You’re writing a book about happiness. And you use yourself as an example a helluva lot. That’s incredibly egotistical and self indulgent.
– Your tone is too light/too flippant. People will think you’re not taking this seriously.
– You only wrote half a page today! So, um, how are you going to write 70,000 words?!!! You’re an idiot for thinking you can do this.
My inner critic said stuff like this to me all the time.
But I still kept writing anyway.
Why? Because if I listened to everything my inner critic said, I’d never get anything done.
If I’d listened to my inner critic, I wouldn’t be walking and running, I wouldn’t have done Ironman, I wouldn’t be back surfing, I wouldn’t have started my business, hired employees, written books, or created courses that help people get happier and more confident.
And while I think there’s lots you can do to keep your inner critic in check (in fact, I dedicate an entire chapter of Happy to the inner critic and how to shut it down), sometimes you’ve just gotta accept that your inner critic is always gonna be around.
When it comes to your life, and the things you want to achieve, your inner critic is gonna feel like a reluctant road trip partner – playing custom curated playlists of all your worst mistakes, and bitching about your driving skills, and pointing out wrong turns just a moment too late.
That’s OK. Your inner critic is allowed to be in the car. It can even make suggestions.
But you can’t let it in the driver’s seat.
Accept your inner critic. Acknowledge its concerns.
But keep driving anyway.
T x
Ps. Is your inbox not going “ding!” with a new letter from me each Thursday? You gotta join the letter gang mate! It’s the best thing I do every week – and very often, the best thing landing in inboxes across the country. Join us here. We love new gang members!
