Your inner critic as a ridiculous fish!

Here’s a trick for dealing with that inner critic that gives so many of us so hard a time. Turn the criticism into a fish! Stand on the edge of the pond and watch the fish swimming around. Maybe imagine the criticism written along the side of the fish.

You didn’t do well enough

For instance, one of my persistent self-criticisms about my career in journalism is ‘You didn’t do well enough.’ If I imagine a fish swimming around with ‘You didn’t do well enough’ printed on the side, I feel like laughing. I don’t know why – it’s just funny.

You’re going to fail

This can work for other irrational thoughts too. I have an irrational belief that everything in life is a test. If I imagine a fish swimming along with ‘It’s a test’ printing on its side, I immediately start to smile at the ridiculousness of it. It gets even funnier if I imagine a second fish following with the slogan ‘Hint: You’re going to fail.’

A few serious points about all this:

1. By visualising your criticisms as fish (or an animal or a toy or whatever you find funny), you create emotional distance from them.
2. You can watch the “fish” swim by without getting ‘hooked’ by them. You’re not in the pool, so you don’t get wet i.e. you don’t let the criticisms affect you deeply.
3. Seeing criticisms as small fish in a larger pool can help put them in perspective, especially if you add some other fish with positive slogans about you.
4. If you want, you can visualise the fish swimming out of sight and the pool becoming peaceful.

The inner critic gives too many good people too hard a time: let’s take it less seriously.

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