Creativity Tip #7: Ignore your inner critic (at least this once).

By Chris Dunmire

Scenario: You're (in the shower, driving through town, washing the dishes, etc.) and are suddenly struck with an idea for some creative project you'd love to try. Within the next few minutes you experience a range of emotions and feelings that look something like this:

excited --> enthused --> motivated --> geared up --> ready to go!

But then you start thinking about the nuts and bolts of the project and why you should do it. Somewhere in there you even consider how other people will react to it. Your emotional / feeling landscape suddenly changes like this:

--> ready to go --> time and effort --> my skills are lacking --> is it really worthwhile --> what will people think ...

What just happened here? Your inner critic happened, that's what.

Your inner critic is good at dissolving your initial creative enthusiasm by introducing self-doubts and other feelings designed to talk you out of doing what you initially wanted to do.

In this case you have two choices:

1. Listen to your inner critic and shelve the project, or
   
   
2. Ignore your inner critic and do the project anyway.

Creativity Tip #7 encourages you to ignore your inner critic, at least this once, and follow through with your project idea despite your fears, self-doubts, and other "what ifs" waiting to stop you.

When you follow through, take note at how you feel when your project is finished. Was your inner critic right about the issues it brought up? Or did the issues disappear as soon as you decided to tell your inner critic to take a hike? You may be surprised at the answer.

© 2006, 2007 Chris Dunmire www.chrisdunmire.com. All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce this article without my permission.