Sqoosh Your Inner Critic!

Do you know what your tipping point is?

When will you escape from being a self-criticizer to a creator?

This is a true story of my tipping point:  How I came to a deep understanding of criticism’s role in this world, and how I used it to escape criticism.

Three years ago, I had a coffee shop in this suburban town called Lakewood, Colorado.  It was a really vibrant shop with many shades of the creative color orange.

I had so many ideas for hosting meetups there.  Every time I had a brilliant idea I quickly told my sister and everyone else around me.  One of my ideas was to host a free showing of the movie The Secret, and customers could enjoy a cup of coffee or tea while watching it.

I ran this idea by my friends and family.  Most were supportive, except for one, who said “I don’t know, Carlota, this is Lakewood and I’m not sure that many people would be open to a movie like that.”

At that point in my life I hadn’t done much work on self-acceptance and listening to my inner guide, so I had the habit of gobbling up discouragement.

So, you guessed it, I went around in circles of doubt, self-criticism, eating up discouragement and…Didn’t end up hosting a single event for months.

For some reason I got inspired to see a psychic reader (I prefer the term “Life Coach”, but whatever, LOL!)  In the session I asked her what sort of events to host at the coffee shop that would bring in dozens more customers.

I named off a few of my ideas and she told me my lesson in this life is to strengthen my intuition.

My response? I started to explain why I felt those ideas wouldn’t work.  I said things like, “But I’m not sure Lakewood is ready for something like The Secret. What if instead of bringing in more business, I end up driving away existing customers?”

Then she said, “STOP. Take a deep breath. You have a choice.  You can only do one thing at a time.  You can either criticize yourself or create. Which do you want to do?”

I sat there pondering her theory and then asked, “But I can criticize while I create…can’t I?  It seems I’ve done this all my life…”

“No, you can not.” She said.  “At any given moment, you can only do one thing at a time. You can either listen to other people’s criticism, or you can create.  You can criticize yourself about a hypothetical creation, or you can create. In any case, you won’t have anything real to criticize if you haven’t created anything yet.“

ah Hah! I finally understood it.  Those who criticize, are not in that moment creating. Those who are fully immersed in the act of creating, are in that moment, not criticizing.

What are your thoughts on this theory? If it resonates with you, where in your life have you witnessed this truth?

P.S., I did end up hosting The Secret event.  And the amazing thing is, I had a full house that night, and 90% of these people didn’t come to see The Secret, but were energetically attracted to the small crowd who did.  The Law of Attraction works in astonishing ways, doesn’t it?  You never know what will happen in your life, until you step out of criticism and into creation.

Here’s to sqooshing YOUR inner critic!

Love,

Carlota

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