Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Blogging ain’t easy.
Doing the inner world work feels excruciating sometimes.
The despicable blogging voice in my head skewered my career on and off for a bit, many moons ago.
My work was solid. But my nasty inner critic never saw solid work. He saw substandard content.
I wrestled with this inner war on the sidelines as other bloggers went on to sweet.
Why did the other bloggers win while I temporarily appeared to lose?
The other crowd learned how to handle their inner critic. Back in the day…..I certainly did not.
Beware the Inner Gangrene
Highly skilled bloggers can die a slow death because of their gangrenous inner world.
On the flip-side of things, truly helpful bloggers who do not pick apart their work become highly successful.
What gives?
Success Is Within
Success is an inside job. I mean this literally. I do not mean to share a mindless cliche for all to nod at then move on while completely forgetting the few words. I mean it. Either success or failure occurs within first but becomes projected on the screen of space later.
This is why tortured geniuses die in obscurity and simply helpful people who put themselves out there confidently become successful. One self-sabotages. The other taps into vast potential by doing things imperfectly but with great confidence.
Do you secretly slay your blogging work?
I do sometimes.
But I have become less judgmental over the years.
Ferreting out condemning ways may mark the difference between your success and failure.
Follow these 3 steps to stop judging.
Pull Back from Blogging
I do not care who you are.
Pulling back from blogging is the first step to pinpoint your harsh inner critic.
Otherwise, critical momentum appears to be too strong. You may even identify with your inner blogging critic. Some worship this sick god, turning around and calling it “perfectionism”. Make no mistake about it; pulling back to patiently observe your mind is the only way to spot negative blogging chatter arising in the mind.
Set an alarm clock for 30-60 minutes. Sit in a quiet room. Stop blogging all together. Devote this session to looking within. Give yourself time to address this merciless inner judge because he loves to hide in your work but hates being exposed in quiet.
Look Closely at Your Inner Chatter
“Nobody will read the post anyway. Why bother writing it?”
You are full of horseshit if that voice did not speak once or many times in your mind.
Every blogger deals with this nasty blogging critic here and there. I had to do it. You will have to do it, unless you have sufficiently conquered this daunting inner foe.
The list of critical “greatest hits” goes on and on. Let the voices arise during your quiet session. See closely how the narrative in your head dictates the trajectory of your blogging career. Yep; it really is an inside-out deal even if you erroneously believe that mindless, hard work brings blogging success. It doesn’t.
No One Beats an Unknown Enemy
How can you out an unknown enemy? Worry not. We will shine the blogging light of truth on these fears. Fear is illusion. Love is truth. That condemning voice in your mind is not really you. It is the ego. It is fear. It is an illusion. You are completely beyond it, in reality. But addressing the negative inner critic is important because you cannot go past what you lack awareness of. You have to know that it’s there to go past it.
Open a Word document. Write down the negative voices in your head. Face these devilish demons of the dark head-on right where they stand.
After listing the ruthlessly harsh blogging judgments in your mind it is time to feel and delete these energies. Step into the emotions. Feel the biting indictments flowing from within. Proceed to look past the poison to free yourself of these feelings.
We Pick this Crap Up Early in Life
You and I acquire these nasty nellies growing up. Perhaps a parent seems to down themselves continuously. The child unconsciously learns to down themselves based on the parent’s example. Never play the blame game here. Parents operate based on their level of awareness. Parents can only give what parents have. I am being diplomatic in saying that some know not what they do.
Simply take ownership of your mental blocks to feel and forgive these ideas in order to accelerate your blogging success.
Publish Truly Helpful Content…..without the Criticism
Quality work is not perfect blogging work.
Truly helpful content serves as practical guide. But judging a blog post like the next War and Peace is madness.
I have observed many highly-talented bloggers who torpedo themselves with the perfection curse. The content is top notch but their inner world is temporarily broken. What wins? The inner world, of course.
Publish helpful content. Be done with it.
Get clear on writing practical posts to empower readers without needlessly going over posts with a critical eye.
Do your work.
Help people.
Tap the “publish” button.
Move on.
I never said this process was easy because discomfort assails us all from time to time.
But publishing detailed content routinely conditions you to accept it as being helpful enough for your community.
You are enough. You are whole. Drill these ideas into your mind. Concentrate on the idea of being truly helpful for readers. That is enough. Readers will love you for it. Fans will convince you to stop trusting the critics in your mind.
You’ll see.
Conclusion
I cannot claim this process to be pleasant.
But the difficult steps prove to be quite do-able.
Struggle enough with your inner critic and you will want to do the messy inner work.
I should know.
I did a wee bit to get this post published. 🙂
