Who is Your Life Balance Coach?
I’ve been yelling at myself all morning. I didn’t need a critic today. I already had one. “What’s wrong with me?” was my inner voice during my Tai Chi class.
Finding ways to create life balance can be challenging, but it’s essential for our well-being.
During the class, I was trying to get every movement right. Trying to make the poses perfect. And like most of us do, the moment something felt off, the inner voice shows up.
“Why didn’t you do this better? Failure…”
“You should be able to do this.”
“Don’t mess this up.”
The more I tried to get everything “perfect,” the less present I became. My mind was busy criticizing instead of paying attention.
At the end of class, one of the other students shared what he got out of the session.
He said his biggest takeaway was simple.
“Stop yelling at yourself.”
That line landed. How often do we talk to ourselves in ways we would never talk to another human being?
We miss a step. Make a mistake. Say the wrong thing in a meeting. And suddenly, the harshest critic in the room is the voice in our own head.
The irony is, the same thing Tai Chi teaches us is what life and leadership demand.
Presence. Patience. Awareness. And most importantly, acceptance of ourselves and others, without judgment. Life balance in action.
You cannot grow and be present while beating yourself up at the same time. Growth and personal evolution start when the criticism stops.
We spend so much time looking outward. Judging. Comparing ourselves to others, reacting to external situations, instead of looking inward.
Stop tearing yourself down and start building and backing yourself up. Choose to be your greatest fan, not adversary.
Catch the inner critic and change the script. We all become what we repeatedly tell ourselves, and consequently, create our own self-imposed stress and pressure, which impacts our decisions, confidence and self-worth.
Give yourself permission to be a powerful work in progress, without the constant self-imposed critique, since no one else is telling you these things except you.
You deserve better than the voice in your head that’s telling you things that aren’t true.
Choose to stand tall, unconditionally, not small. Choose to believe in yourself, even when things aren’t going well, not get beaten up by your own voice.
Because every day you deserve success, not self-sabotage.
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The post Stop Yelling at Yourself. How to Quiet Your Inner Critic and Become Your #1 Fan first appeared on Keith Rosen.