Harnessing your inner critic

Recently I was invited to do a presentation to an audience of medical practitioners and performing artists. The performing artists came from a range of performing genres; from classical ballet to hip-hop dancers, to Scottish dancers.

The topic they asked me to present on was “Harnessing your inner critic.” What an apt topic, I thought, for performing artists. Their techniques are so intricate and can only become mastered via consistent critique and repetitive corrected practice. However, the latter can also be applied to the technical side of every sport. Harnessing one’s inner critic is essential for mastering technique, as well as moving to the next level of performance. So what is your “inner critic”?

At its worst, it is a resounding voice that says something like this:

a voice in your head that WARNS you what can go wrong

a voice in your head that JUDGES what is going wrong

a voice in your head that PERSECUTES you for doing wrong

a voice in your head that REMINDS you of what you did wrong

So how does the above extreme critical voice make you feel? There is a percentage of the population that are motivated by this critical voice. However, the research on this subject clearly shows that most of these performers, although they might be stretched, they never truly fulfil their potential. This is because this harsh inner critic concurrently curbs, edits, and restricts the full expression of their potential.

For most, the extreme critical voice described above fosters the growth of doubt, fear, anxiety, paranoia and helplessness.

The bad news is that we all, to some extent, have a critical voice in our heads. The good news, is, that we can all harness our inner critic to serve and bolster performance in sport and life. We do this by using its energy to direct us to its OPPOSITE counterpart, the positive-supportive inner voice.

Below is a simple two step process to elicit your positive-supportive inner voice:

Step 1.

Recognise your inner critic

He or she is always there, observing and waiting for an opportunity to let you know how he or she feels. The inner critic is most active when you make a mistake, when you miss a ball when you miss easy opportunities, etc. The inner critic also loves to tell you what a fluke your last brilliant shot was, and how it is unlikely to happen anytime again soon. Your inner critic is a bully, pouncing on any opportunity to pull you down.

But, the inner critic is quite predictable in terms of when he or she will speak most, just before or after a point, shot or move. It is this predictability that allows you to listen out for it, to recognise it and to label it. And once you recognise it, you can move to step 2.

Step 2.

Boost with the opposite supportive voice

To allow the inner critic to run riot in your mind will, in almost every circumstance, result in you not achieving your potential and, in most cases result in poor performance. Once you recognise the inner critic, label it, and then deliver a counterpositive voice to neutralise it, followed by another, and if necessary even another.

So how do you do this? In our journeys as sportspeople, we have almost certainly experienced moments of genius, brilliant shots, phenomenal comebacks, etc. Stored in our memories are a host of these experiences. As our careers progress, so too does the number of these amazing moments increase.

The trick is to access these memories and to ensure they are the relative opposite of the inner critic. So, as an example, if the inner critic is telling you that you are so far behind that you can never recover, you need to access a memory of a time where you were this far behind and did come back strong and even won. Play that movie in your head to douse the noise of the inner critic. Then look for another positive example, and another, until positive mental momentum is achieved.

The possibility here is that your performance now improves, changing the direction of the game. But, the reality is that you could, even with these positive memories still mess up the next point, move, or shot. The champion mindset is one where despite this; you simply start again, and re-access those memories and play the positive experience over in your mind again. Every point, shot or move is devoid of any connection to the previous point, shot or move, and devoid of any connection to the next point, shot or move. You allow the positive supportive voice to do its work on every point where the inner critic appears. It’s a herculean battle that every champion knows, but only a few know how to master. It takes practice, mental preparation and lots of hard work, but as you lift the golden cup above your head, you know in that instant, it was all worth it.

Toni Gaddie is a clinical psychologist that specialises in champions, and in particular, sports champions. Based on her experience as an internationally ranked professional tennis player, Toni has dedicated her life to enabling sports champions to achieve top rankings in their particular sport. Toni has participated twice in the World Economic Forum in Davos where she shared her approach with world champions in many disciplines. She is the co-founder of The Champions Academy.