7 Ways to Silence Your Inner Critic For Good

We’ve all had moments where we are our own worst critic. Overthinking, beating ourselves up and generally running down our own self-esteem - it can be debilitating, sometimes stopping us from taking risks and living our best lives. In fact, your inner critic is a form of self-sabotage - and it's holding you back from reaching your full potential. But there are ways to silence that inner critic, once and for all!

Acknowledge the Voice

Recognizing the voice of your inner critic is an important step in silencing it. Acknowledging it allows you to understand its source and ultimately learn how to control it. Know this - the voice of your inner critic isn’t always right or true; in fact, it’s usually far from accurate! Once you realize this, it becomes easier to manage - and eventually ignore any negative thoughts or feelings that come about as a result of what the inner critic says. 

Speak Positively To Yourself

Your word is your wand. Rather than letting the words of your inner critic define who you are, pause, breathe, and positively speak to yourself instead. Any time those negative thoughts creep in, replace them with something positive. Remind yourself why you are valuable and capable. Give yourself words of encouragement - just like you would do for any friend or colleague! 

Change Your Perspective 

If you find yourself slipping into a negative thought spiral, take a step back and change your perspective. Ask yourself if this thought is really true or just something that has been ingrained in you since childhood by family or friends. Most of our beliefs are not actually OUR beliefs. They have been given to us by those around us since birth. Ask yourself - is this thought helping me or hurting me? Reframing the situation can help put things into perspective and make them easier to manage. 

When we’re feeling down, our brains tend to focus more on the negative than the positive. To combat this, try reframing your thoughts into something more positive and constructive. For example, instead of telling yourself “I can never get anything right!” try replacing it with “I can learn from my mistakes and become better at this!” It may not be easy at first, but over time this will help retrain your brain into focusing more on the positive aspects of any situation. 

Surround Yourself with the Right People

Stop surrounding yourself with people who doubt you, make you question yourself, or make you feel like you aren't enough. Start surrounding yourself with people who will encourage you, lift you up, help you see the amazing human that you are. When you surround yourself with people who believe in you - you will believe in yourself.

When things get tough, surrounding ourselves with positive influences can have a huge impact on how we feel about ourselves and help silence that inner critic. Consider joining a support network of like-minded individuals who nurture your growth rather than bring you down!

If you're looking for a place to find the women who are going to push you to be your best self, and help you see the potential you have within, we have just the community for you. Be in the Room is a NO BS community where you will find the support you need - packed with leadership resources for both personal and professional growth that you will not find anywhere else.

Learn to Trust Yourself

Self trust is about building a relationship with yourself. To build a relationship with a friend, you need to spend time with them, learn about them, and keep commitments to them. The same is true for building a relationship with you.

To build self trust you must build a relationship with yourself. This means spending time with yourself, learning about yourself, and keeping commitments to yourself. Building this relationship with YOU will teach your brain that you are a person worth respecting, you are a person with answers, and you are a person who does not need to be criticized.

Reflect on Past Successes

Another great way to silence your inner critic is by reflecting on past successes—no matter how small or seemingly insignificant they may be! Reminding yourself that you have overcome obstacles in the past is a great way to build self-trust. It will help build up your confidence so that next time an obstacle arises, you won't be as likely to give into doubt or worry about failure. You know you are capable of overcoming hard things - because you've done it before.

Celebrate Your Wins

Celebrate everything you achieve no matter how small (or large!) You worked hard for it so give yourself credit where credit is due! Whether its completing a work project or even simply taking out the trash – every win counts! Acknowledging these successes boosts confidence and helps silence that pesky inner critic that is holding you back from all you are meant to be.

There's no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to silencing our inner critics—but these eight tips should give successful women everywhere some ideas for how they can start addressing those pesky doubts head on! With a little bit of self-love and perseverance, you can eventually drown out that inner critic and start living your best life!