Not exactly an over-the-board, can’t sleep type, but a mild case of procrastination and self talk kind of perfectionist.

Why do I believe this?

Because I tried to record three short videos yesterday to introduce a segment for a new coaching kit soon to be released.

The videos only needed to be 30-120 seconds. Yes, that would be seconds — not minutes!

Let me tell you how it worked and you tell me if I am a perfectionist.

I decided to sit out on the deck at my lake-side office. So out I went with my iMac with Quicktime up and running.

I sat on a bar stool with my iMac on a fencing ledge and hit “record new movie”.

I started talking. Then I messed up the name of the topic, so I stopped the recording and played it back.

I scrutinized my hair. I scrutinized the tilt of my glasses.

I scrutinized the top I had on.

I scrutinized every little wrinkle, tilt of my head, and where my eyes were focused.

I decided this wouldn’t work.

So, I slapped on more make up,...

We all have an inner critic. That annoying, negative inner voice that judges, criticizes, and shames us for how we look, how we feel, what we think and what we do. It beats us up over our tiniest faults and our biggest mistakes. It may say things like, “You’re stupid,” “You’re going to fail,” “Who do you think you are?” “You’ll never… (lose that weight, get that job, find a soul mate).”

Though it may not feel like it, our inner critic doesn’t always mean to be malicious. Sometimes it’s just simply trying to help us avoid the pain of rejection, humiliation and isolation. The irony is, when we accept these negative messages it creates the very pain it’s trying to help us avoid.

Here’s a sample of the impact our negative inner critic has on our behavior. It contributes to our:

• Procrastination
• Self-doubt
• Shame
• Addictive behavior – substance abuse, eating when not hungry
• Keeping super...