How to Find Your Inner Genius: 5 Strategies to Quiet Your Self Critic and Unleash Your True Creative Potential
How to Find Your Inner Genius: 5 Strategies to Quiet Your Self Critic and Unleash Your True Creative Potential
The word genius comes from Latin, where it means “a guardian deity or spirit which watches over each person from birth…” It’s helpful to think like this: your genius is already with you. So why can it be so hard to get back to it?
Your inner critic is getting in the way. That’s why I’ve put together a handful of strategies to quiet the critic inside and unleash your genius.
Morning Pages
You are going to start writing at least three pages every morning. You’re going to do this before you do anything else. You’ll be groggy and wanting coffee, but you’ll be writing.
A few rules:
Write by hand
Write at least three pages
Write whatever comes to mind
You aren’t crafting literature here. You’re working through whatever is in your mind. By getting it out there, you process a lot, but you also get in the habit of doing without critiquing first.
Try Improvisation
You don’t have to take an improv class at your local comedy club, but you do need to start doing things that feel funny and foolish.
It might seem counterintuitive, but the more you allow yourself to be silly, the less ground your self criticism has to stand on. It trains you to ignore that critical voice — first for things that don’t matter, and later for the really important stuff.
Here are some ideas to get you started.
(Actually) Brainstorm
We’ve all heard the sacred law of brainstorming: there are no bad ideas.
Easy to say, hard to do.
Brainstorming is actually fun, and the process is easy:
Pick a challenge to generate ideas for
Set a minimum amount of ideas (somewhere around 30 is where things get really good)
Write any and every idea that pops up in your head
One extra tip: try to get ideas down as fast as possible. Your inner critic won’t be able to keep up.
Go Somewhere Else
This one might seem strange, but it works. If you find yourself overcome with negative self talk, get up and go somewhere else. If it’s nice outside, that’s a perfect option. If not, try getting work done at a local coffee shop or even a different room in the house. Try it, and notice how you get a new perspective.
Cultivate Hobbies
Now, you should never let side projects distract you from your main goal. But having a hobby or interest that isn’t for anyone else and isn’t connected to work can be both rewarding and a great place to go where the inner critic doesn’t follow.
Because hobbies are off to the side of our lives, we don’t get our ego wrapped up in them. That means when we accomplish something, it’s a positive. And when we fail, it doesn’t matter that much. This is a great way to shed the inner critic. Plus, hobbies build entirely new skills that have crossover with the rest of our lives.
