We all hear voices in our head. No, humanity is not entirely crazy. The voices we hear are our conscience, like Pinocchio’s Jiminy Cricket, our inspiration, our organizer, and our critic.
Here is why you should not always listen to the voices in your head, especially the inner critic. The saying goes that we are our own worst critic, and it is true. That voice in our head tells us that we are not good enough or smart enough, so we might as well give up. That voice helps us make excuses – I’m too tired. I’m too busy. I need to mow the lawn. The kids have baseball. Blah, blah, blah. We defer to the distractions, instead of working on our art, whether it is drawing, music, writing, designing, photography, or any other creative endeavor.
Author Danielle Krysa explains how to combat that inner critic in her book Your Inner Critic is a Jerk: and Other Truths About Being Creative. The five ways she recommends to silence the inner critic are:
- Copy experts
- Give your inner critic a non-threatening name (mine is Grace)
- Say thank you
- Don’t be precious about your work (watch the full video to understand what she means)
- Translate and rewrite
If you would like to know more about the book, you can watch a free course on CreativeLive where Danielle describes how to silence your inner critic in more detail.