High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 489: Silencing Your Inner Critic

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

Your inner critic is your disempowering inner voice that can sounds scared, angry, or judgmental. We want to be aware of our inner critic to reduce it. We all have an inner critic inside of us. Remember our inner critic tends to lie to us. We want to respond to our inner critic with challenging it, and choose a more empowering and truthful statement to tell ourselves instead.  Quote of the Week: “Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.” Brene Brown  This Week’s Power Phrase: “I talk to myself powerfully instead of listening to my inner critic.” 

Hi friends, my name is Dr. Sindra Kampoff, a national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. Every week I'm on the local radio sharing my top tips on exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best, so you can accomplish all your dreams. Get ready for a jammed, packed episode focused on practical tips to help you get after your goals and step out of your comfort zone. Let's go. We check in with Cindra Kampoff today. And today's topic, Cindra, is silencing your inner

critic, which is something that we all have. You'll usually start us off with a quote. I love this quote by Brene Brown. She said, talk to yourself like you would to someone you love. And what inspired the topic today? Well, Lisa, as an executive and performance coach, I work with a lot of people one-on-one and I hear all the ways that they get in their own way. And they tell me many times their deepest thoughts and beliefs that create barriers just to being their best. And we create these barriers, honestly, without even realizing it. So here's some of the examples of inner critic thoughts that my clients would say, hold them back, they would say, you know, what if they what would they

think if I failed at this? Or what if I can't actually do it? Or I'm from a small town, so there's no way I can build this job in sales. And, and so the point is, is that we want to be able to address our inner critics. So can you tell us what you mean by our inner critic if we don't know? It's this disempowering voice, this inner voice that can sound, you know, fearful or scared, judgmental. Sometimes it leads to us procrastinating. And it's, you know, things that we say to ourselves, like, I could have done better, or I'm not enough, or I must be perfect, or in some way that, you know, we're not worthy. And so we actually all have this inner critic

inside of us. And so as I was, you know, as I'm saying these words, it's likely that you relate to them in some way, because we all have this, some kind of version of an inner critic. And so knowing our inner critic really helps us realize we're not alone, but it also helps us be more aware of our inner critic tendencies. You know, what do we tend to say to ourselves that kind of holds us back? And it shows us really the importance of talking to ourselves really powerfully instead. Cinder, what's the first step that we all should take in silencing that inner critic? I would say awareness is always the first step in mastering your own mind.

And then the next step, I would say, is like daily mental conditioning. And when we listen to our inner critic and actually believe it, you know, we don't take risks and we fear failure. We compare ourselves to other people. And it's, you know, this inner critic is part of us. We can't completely get away from it completely,

but we can choose how we respond. And I think what's important, Lisa, is to realize, you know, our brain is hardwired to keep us safe. And it's hardwired for this negativity. And so the reason we want to notice it is just so that we can really step into our potential more often. So why is this important to us? Well, when we level up our thoughts, we level up our own life. And our thoughts determine our own potential, including our level of happiness. And sometimes what we do in our careers and the amount of money we make, for example. So mastering yourself really, I think, does include daily conditioning.

Conditioning those thoughts to help us really step into our potential and engaging in more powerful self-talk that's really the truth about who we are. What do you suggest that we do? What else, like, can we do with this inner critic? Because it comes up all the time, I'm sure. Yeah, so I think the first step besides this awareness is just to be curious of your inner critic. You know, when does your inner critic go into overdrive, for example, or what triggers your inner critic? What happens to your body or how you feel when you listen and believe your inner critic? And then I would say like challenge those messages. What would you actually say that's more empowering or what actually is the truth? You know, what do you

know to be true about yourself and your potential? And tell yourself that. How would you summarize today for us? Lisa, I'd say your inner critic is this disempowering voice that can sound fearful or scared or judgmental. And we want to be aware of our inner critic to really reduce it. We all have this inner critic. And so I think the key is just to remember that it is telling you lies and, you know, instead tell yourself the truth and, you know, a more empowering truthful statement would be more, you know, really best for you to step into your potential. And before we figure out how to connect with you, if we are interested in following along, what is our power phrase for the week?

I talk to myself powerfully instead of listening to my inner critic. Talk to yourself powerfully this week. How do we get in touch with you or follow along with what you do and all of your work, Sindra? Thank you, Lisa. You can head over to DrSindra, so D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. And then you can find more information about my coaching or my book, The Ambit, where I talk about the inner critic. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe. And you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes.

And to join my exclusive community for high performers, where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.