Kind. Nice. Sweet. These are all adjectives people often use to describe me as I mostly move through life with a smile on my face and words of encouragement on my lips.
But I have a secret.
Inside me lives a mean girl. Inside me lives a bully. No, this mean girl isn’t saying mean things about you behind your back. She doesn’t have time for that. She’s too busy hurling insults at me nearly every hour of every day. She’s too busy pushing me around. She’s too busy calling me fat and pointing out the puffy dark circles under my eyes. She’s too busy telling me I’m a bad wife, a bad daughter, a bad sister and a terrible friend. And the activity that takes up most of her time is telling me I will never, ever be the writer I want to be.
This mean girl inside me might sound familiar because you might have a mean girl of your own. Ignoring her isn’t making her go away. So I say it’s time for us to fight back.
Affirmations will be our weapon of choice. As writers, we obviously believe in the power of words. So let’s commit to speaking affirming words over ourselves, our lives, and our writing every day.
Related Reading: Affirmations for Women Who Write
How to Write Affirmations to Silence Your Inner Critic
Today I’m sharing 10 affirmations for writers to help quiet your inner critic. Keep in mind that these are affirmations that work for me, affirmations that make my inner mean girl shut the hell up. You may need to write your own. So let me first share how I wrote mine.
First, I let the mean girl run wild. I let her get it all out. I let her say every disparaging thing she wanted to say about my writing and about my writing dreams.
Here’s what she told me:
You’re too old to go after your dreams. You should be further along by now.
You’ll never be a well-known writer.
You aren’t smart enough to be a successful writer.
No one cares what you have to say.
If you write a book no one will read it. If you publish a book no one will buy it.
You’re not strong enough to take the criticism and rejection well-known writers must face. You’ll never be successful because you live in Alabama.
You’re a fraud and one day everyone will find out.
I wrote down every thing she had to say. Then I recognized her words for what they really are — dirty, filthy lies. I ripped up her list of lies and then challenged each one with a statement of truth, my truth, God’s truth and words of wisdom from women I admire.
Related Reading: Affirmations for Christian Women Who Write
10 Affirmations to Quiet My Inner Mean Girl
As Roxane Gay once wrote, “You are not a late bloomer. You are already blooming.”
God has perfect timing. I will trust the truth of Rachel Hollis’ words when she wrote, “It’s highly possible that by not being where you thought you should be, you will end up exactly where you’re meant to go.”
The Lord blesses me and enlarges my territory, my influence, my impact.
I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Related Reading: Affirmations for Women Who Blog
I have a tribe of amazing women who support me in all I do.
The words I write are powerful and purposeful and change women’s lives.
As I take delight in the Lord, God grants me the desires of my heart.
I know who I am and what I can do. The opinions of others do not define me.
I bloom wherever I am planted.
I am free from imposter syndrome because my competence comes from God.
What affirmations do you use to silence your inner critic?
Wow! Once again your blog hits the nail on the head by revealing what we as women do to ourselves daily when we listen to our inner critic. So glad to know I’m not the only one trying to stifle the part of me that tries to defeat me.
Yes, I use the Word of God to remind me of who I am in Christ. So that usually helps me to “renounce the lie and announce the truth.” My favorite scripture for this purpose is “I CAN do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Not that I am trying to do ALL THINGS but only those things that Christ has given me wisdom and confirmation to achieve. I stopped trying to be perfect back in college, particularly when friends reminded me in a gentle and friendly way that perfection was overrated and suicidal. At my college graduation, the dean of our school told us to stop trying to draw the perfect circle. Bottom line: it’s impossible and you will drive yourself miserable and crazy the longer you try. Those words were like a 10 ton weight had been lifted from my shoulders. After that, I barely freaked about about meeting deadlines for the newspaper where I worked. An editor reminded me early in my career, “My article doesn’t have to be perfect…but it does have to be finished.”
So now, I operate under the belief that as long as I have given my best efforts to a project, I leave it at that and meet 98.8 percent of my deadlines with ease. Rome was never built in a day, so neither is this journey of overcoming perfection going to take just one whole day. I have learned to give myself permission not to try to be perfect but more importantly, I now try to honest and deliberate in whatever I am trying and to achieve. That’s now good enough for me.
Thank you so much for sharing this. And that verse is definitely one I lean on as well. So many of us struggle with perfectionism and you’re right — it’s overrated and dangerous! Through prayer, writing and therapy I’m getting better every day. Thanks again for sharing your story.
Thank you! Truth be told, we all (women in particular) battle with an inner voice that constantly whispers, shouts and even screams – “You’re a HOT MESS!” Knowing that God’s love can silence the noise if only for a short time and put us back on sure footing is essential. Just as a note of assurance – You are the absolute Bomb! Your smile is electric as is your personality and your Can-Do spirit keeps me and others hopeful as a new and seasoned bloggers! Continued Peace and Blessings. It’s All Write With Me! 🙂
Yes! God’s love and God’s Word can definitely quiet that inner mean girl. And thank you so much for your kind words. It’s comments like this that help keep me going!