Hello beautiful people of Expansive Capacity!
It’s time once again for Superpower Sunday! 🙂
As always, this is all about how we can implement wee changes that may turbocharge our *existing* superpowers so that we don’t dim our own lights due to inertia, stress, or any other upper-limit problem that reveals itself along our path.
This month’s Superpower Sunday is about our buddy The Critic Spot.
A cousin to Worry O’Clock, The Critic Spot is one I first got anchored into my life back in 2000 when I was prepping for my seven minutes on stage in The Belly Room at The Comedy Store. Gah! Scariest seven minutes of my life, I tell ya. And BOY did my inner critic have a LOT to say about how massively I was gonna bomb.
As Greg Dean — my standup comedy coach back in my actor days — so brilliantly taught me about that inner critic who ALWAYS came onto stage with me and interrupted my comedic flow, the goal isn’t to eliminate the inner critic (since it *does* serve a valuable purpose in helping us improve our craft and make stronger choices), but definitely to keep it out of the performance.
And if we rehearse in a way that allows the critic to show up, we’re actually training INTO our performance the sidebar from that cruel voice that’ll gang up with any low enoughness WHILE we’re performing. So… we have to rehearse with the inner critic SOMEWHERE ELSE. Enter: The Critic Spot!
The Critic Spot is a physical location in the room where you visually “place” your inner critic while you rehearse, audition, and perform. Every time your inner critic wants to butt in with an opinion about how you’re doing something, you have to STOP what you’re doing (running lines, prepping for a meeting, rehearsing Brandprov, and even non-actor-life type things of course), physically GO to The Critic Spot, and get the notes right there and then, unfettered by the work itself.
Because when we try NOT to hear the inner critic while we’re working out, we just build IN the struggle of that. And the energy has to go somewhere, even as we execute the performance later. So, give the inner critic audience — in its spot. Go there. Get the notes. Leave The Critic Spot. Get back to work.
Oh, the inner critic is speaking up again? Stop. Move back to The Critic Spot. Get the notes. Leave The Critic Spot. Get back to work.
Repeat repeat repeat.
This teaches the brain that we WILL NOT build self-criticism INTO our work. And you can do this while writing, while working on a performance, even while doing stuff in your personal life. Because that inner critic is no better than suits in the writers room (and you KNOW there are NO SUITS IN THE WRITERS ROOM, right?!?).
Try this. Let me know how it goes for you. I feel as though right now tactics like this are more meaningful than ever.
Reminder: Your May Aligned Hustle Calendar is at the Welcome page if you haven’t already snagged your copy.
As always, there is so very much love flowing your way!
Enoughness is an inside job… and sometimes you need a guide to find your way there. Let Bonnie Gillespie get you started.