Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The Critic Inside

I don't know about you, but I am probably my own worst critic. Although I try to maintain a positive attitude, there are times when I struggle with self-doubt and self-criticism.

• Whenever I see a photo of myself, I automatically begin scrutinizing my appearance. Does my hair look okay? Does that outfit make me look fat? Is my smile weird? And--if I'm in a group shot--how do I look compared to everyone else?

• My workout schedule has been sporadic for the past few months. Instead of being proud of the days that I DO work out, I tend to beat myself up on those days where I skip the workouts instead. And when I do work out, it's all too easy to focus on being short of breath and not having the stamina to do as many push-ups as the perky trainer on the DVD, rather than congratulate myself for having more muscle definition and better balance than I used to.

• When driving home from work or laying in bed at night, I sometimes find my mind settling on the projects that I didn't complete (or didn't even start) that day rather than being thankful for the work that I did get done.

It's difficult to silence my inner critic. I try to remind myself to focus on the positive, but that's easier said than done sometimes. I realize that Satan often uses these moments to get me really down on myself, and that can degrade into a total "Woe is me, I can't do anything right" mindset if I don't watch it.

Am I the only one who faces these criticisms from within? How do you fend them off?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are not the only one....I struggle with this alot....but I have found that if I start thinking about all the good things going on, actually list them in my mind, I ususally can turn off Negative Nellie for a litte while.