I was scanning a list of recent posts and I misread How to Tame Your Inner Critic, as How to Blame Your Inner Critic. This struck me as a much more interesting title; it has the potential for some exploration.

Think about it. Criticism and Blame are often in the same gang. When you put ‘self-‘ in front of either they come along to beat us up whenever they feel like it.

The more we let someone into our lives, the more careful we have to be with the selection process. It seems to me that if you have an inner critic, it’s probably not a very nice character to knock around with.

If an associate says things to us that put us down, then it’s best to stop listening. If a true friend does something we don’t like, because of the nature of the relationship (true friendship), we’d be able to tell them what we thought, stop the unwanted behaviour and move on.

When you blame someone for their unwanted behaviour you hold them responsible and reprimand them for it. As I see it, if you apply the same logic to the so-called ‘friend’ of an inner critic, then you’d stop associating with it pretty quickly.

You may not be happy with the idea of blaming, because it’s an ugly habit even when it is justified. Then how about naming and shaming to call out the critic? Once you’ve recognised that it is out to get you, you can disown it. From then on choose carefully when deciding who (or what), to pay attention to.

From then on choose carefully when deciding who (or what), to pay attention to.