The Very Best Reason to Stop Criticizing Yourself
As a group, actors are incredibly gifted at beating ourselves up. Please stop. Because the very best reason to stop criticizing yourself is that you’re probably doing it all wrong.
Think about it logically: if all the things you beat yourself up over were true – if you’re really as lazy, untalented, unintelligent, unmotivated, and prone to procrastination as that creepy little voice has been telling you … then you’re probably no good at self-assessment, either.
You’re probably not evaluating yourself correctly. Your judgement is off. Your measuring standards are skewed. It’s like taking your temperature with a thermometer you pull out of the freezer instead of the medicine cabinet. Your numbers will be off because your measuring tools are off. Therefore, the habitual ways in which you criticize yourself – based upon your own inaccurate self-assessments – are fundamentally flawed, as well.
This is no lesson in positive thinking. Instead, this is a lesson in accurate thinking. Don’t overestimate the rest of the world and underestimate yourself. If we all take the time we spend beating ourselves up, and invest it in positive growth activities instead, we’d all be happier, more productive, and more successful.
Louise Hay said, “You’ve been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” She’d be thrilled if we would take her advice – and take positive steps daily towards locking our inner critics securely in the closet … and throwing away the key.
Wanna join me in this new way of thinking in 2020? What have you got to lose – except that creepy little voice that never talked nicely to you anyway?
@MikeKimmelActor
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