Michael D. Rabin, Ph.D. Coaching & Consulting An Inner Critics Voice

You possess a familiar critical inner voice that serves to confound forward motion in life. It’s a seductively persuasive voice whose siren song offers you safety, protection, comfort, freedom from choice. Your own such inner critic knows the arguments most effective in keeping you in a “safe” zone. The refrain might be “You’ve tried that before and failed,” “You’re not (smart, bold, lucky, clever, experienced, attractive, committed… whatever) enough,” “That might work for others, but not for you,” or “You just don’t have the (time, money, freedom, flexibility, authority… whatever) to do that.” It can also be very clever and construct opaque barriers out of your sense of responsibility, guilt, fear, self-image or concern about what others think of you.

Does any of this sound familiar? This voice can be so familiar, in fact, that you have quite possibly lost the ability to discern it from your own aspirational voice.

This inner critic believes it’s helping you by keeping your life stable. Its motto is “Nothing ventured, nothing lost.” Serving this voice can have many impacts on your life. The most debilitating is that you become immobilized into maintaining your status quo. If you want more of the same in your life the inner critic is happy to dish it out in abundance. Most of us, though, would prefer forward motion propelling us to achieve our best selves and highest aspirations.

There are ways you can learn to recognize this inner critic’s voice. It leads to inaction. It creates excuses. It blames others. It likes to be a victim. It lowers your drive. It tells stories that reinforce feelings of helplessness.

Life coaching can help you discern this voice and recognize that it is only one from among many you possess. There are other more empowering voices you can choose to hear. A life coach facilitates the process of learning to neutralize the inner critic.

(Other Thoughts and Essays)