There is only one worse critic than a terrible panel of judges. I’m talking about the kind of judges who continuously underscore you and when asked have little explanation as to why you scored so low….
Yourself.
It is human nature to continuously beat ourselves up over the simplest stuff that really doesn’t matter in the long run.
So how are we supposed to overcome our own damn minds if they are programmed against us?!
Well, this reminds me of the time I placed 1st overall for male Freeski in the college nationals. On the podium with ten other skiers aside me I felt proud - this was a goal I had been grinding towards ever since I watched a local legend (and hero of mine) win 6 years before.
While I was standing up there something felt weird. I had spent all of this time working towards this very moment, why couldn’t I just celebrate?
Then it hit me……..
I was the only person out of the 10 who did not have a single sponsor. How could this be possible? I was on top. #1. The gold medalist.
This lead to a painful realization.
I was the only person who thought I was not good enough to become sponsored, and therefore was still grinding in a restaurant and paying for all of my own equipment.
The only thing that was holding me back was my mindset. Not my ability, not my effort, not my determination.
The funny thing was that I believed I was good enough to out train and out ski all of my competitors. But I was still my #1 biggest critic and deep down I thought I was not worthy of being sponsored.
I had not sent a single cold email to ANY ski sponsor. No outreach effort, no attempts, hell I even had some reps tell me they would sponsor me and I never followed up.
To bring this around full circle, I will never find a worse critic than myself. And you won’t find a worse critic than yourself. It is just human nature.
The ability to understand this is a valuable one, but what is even more valuable is self-belief.
Don’t just take it from me, Felix Dennis (the 9+ figure magazine entrepreneur) claims that self-belief is the most priceless asset in the entire world. He’s right.