Critics: Will Never Stop Criticizing (Heroic +1 #1,507)

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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In our last few plus ones, we've been exploring some wisdom from Darren Donnelly's great sports fable, Victory Favors the Fearless. We've talked about the importance of conquering fear and laziness and named the seven fears that are holding you back and talked about the importance of feeding faith and starving fear. Today we're going to talk about critics and the fact that they will never stop criticizing. But first, I want to quickly review those seven fears as we have Darren's wisdom in mind that the first step in defeating fear is recognizing its voice. Recognize it, block it, then battle it back. Don't passively allow fear to have its way with you. So Here are those seven fears one more time. 1. The fear of what other people think. Can you feel its presence in your life? How about the fear of change? The fear of making the wrong decision. The fear of missing out on something better again. You want to notice it so you can do something about it. The fear of not being good enough, does that arise for you? How about the fear of failure being permanent? Or the fear of being due for a setback? Now onto dealing with the critics. Darren tells us, and I quote, critics will never stop criticizing you because they can't stand the idea of someone they know chasing their dream and succeeding. It makes them question themselves. It makes them wonder what they could have been if they'd taken the risk and tried something different. And they hate to think about that. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks about you. It only matters what you think about you. Only you know if you're giving your personal best and becoming the best that you can be. No one else can possibly know that, so their opinions shouldn't matter to you. Now that wisdom is from the chapter on the first Fear what others think of you. Nietzsche, Pressfield, Paulo Coelho, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Brene Brown come to mind in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Nietzsche tells us, the higher you ascend, the smaller you appear to the eye of envy. But most of all, they hate those who fly. Plus, Nietzsche says, delivering his philosophy with a hammer. They punish you for all your virtues. They forgive you entirely your mistakes. In the war of Art. Steven Pressfield tells us the the professional learns to recognize envy driven criticism and to take it for what it is. The supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had the guts. And Pablo Coelho blogged about the subject back in the day. He quoted John Grisham, who told us critics should find meaningful work. And he shared this anonymous one that's pretty good. Critics are like eunuchs in a harem. They know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves. In self reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson tells us, what I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. Then there's Brene Brown. In daring greatly, she tells us, and I quote her going back to Roosevelt's man in the arena speech, I also learned that the people who love me, the people I really depend on, were never the critics who were pointing at me while I stumbled. They weren't in the bleachers at all. They were with me in the arena, fighting for me and with me, she says. Nothing has transformed my life more than realizing that it's a waste of time to evaluate my worthiness by weighing the reaction of the people in the stands. The people who love me and will be there regardless of the outcome are within arm's reach. This realization has changed everything. In other words, ignore the critics. Trust thyself, conquer your fear. Do your best. Give us all you've got today. Little PS Here. Who should we listen to? Well, Darren tells us to people we admire and I'll add most importantly, listen to your daimon. As Darren puts it, every time you think of people who might be critical, immediately ask yourself, am I giving my best? Am I becoming the best that I can be? Am I chasing my dream? If I am, then who cares what anyone else thinks?

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