Oct 24, 2017
Kill Your Critic!
Yesterday, I met with my amazing friend and mentor, Michael Flynn. As always, every conversation with this incredible individual is filled with quotable quotes, life-changing advice and hilarious impressions which make me wish I had been recording the entire thing. This piece is my attempt at making sure I don’t forget the advice and hold myself accountable to the 30-day challenge I’ve been given. Additionally, I sincerely hope this touches someone, somewhere and changes their life.
First lesson: Give yourself more credit. You’re awesome. Take ownership of that.
I started out by telling Michael the future plans I’ve been baking in my head — a career in the creative and cultural industry. My plan to get there: perhaps grad school or more experience in the field. I then proceeded to talk about an amazing dance crew/creative agency/all-round-amazing group of people called Quick Style who I’m now working with as a Communications consultant on a volunteer basis (Psst: I don’t actually know what to call it, but consultant sounds cool, so yeah…Also, to fully understand how awesome this is, check out my piece on them when I first discovered them through a YouTube wormhole).
I guess I kept moving between being really excited to second-guessing myself in the same sentence and he noticed. Both through my words and body-language. I’ve been giving my students advice about how to not be “too modest” about their passions and accomplishments, but here I was, doing it to myself (I’m serious. I used those exact words and had to explain what “modest” means in that context).
When Michael pointed it out, I changed the framing of the next thing I said. Automatic revolution. I sat up straighter. Sounded more confident. I could feel the light in my eyes shining out.
Seriously. Try it. Try it right now.
Lesson 2: Kill your critic! a.k.a that voice in your head that tells you to be cautious and rational
There is a voice in your head that was programmed into you at a young age and throughout your life by your parents/guardian.
The idea is that your inner child is where your creativity and genius truly lies. Your critic stops you every time you have a great idea. It says:
“Are you being rational?”
“What makes you think this will work?”
“This is not logical/doesn’t make sense according to our ‘rules’/Be cautious”
Your adult side is what tries to balance out the both of these and I feel that most of the time, it leans more towards the “rational” side.
30 Day Challenge
The challenge that I’ve been given and that I hope you’ll take with me, is to identify, every time you make a decision or think about something, who is talking? Who is taking the lead?
According to Michael, you never completely get rid of the critic, but the goal is to identify when it’s trying to take over, and mediate its effects. You simply must. Because if you don’t, you’ll end up living a life that you’re unsatisfied with. You will let incredible opportunities pass you by because you hesitated for too long and didn’t dare to turn the dream into a reality. Let the child in you out! It’ll revolutionize every aspect of your life.
It’s going to be tough, but let’s take the challenge together and live the life we’ve always dreamed of.
If you’d like to hear more from Michael, like and follow his Facebook page.
