We are our worst critics. Often we berate ourselves, put ourselves down with fear and doubt. That inner judge tells us that we really can’t accomplish anything in life, so it’s better to stop trying. It’s the voice of shame and contempt and follows us everywhere. We feel inadequate.

We look with envy on those who have succeeded and feel we don’t deserve the same amount of success. Society enforces that belief. From early life we are told to conform to the norm. It’s so much better to be like every member of the crowd than stand out.

Limiting beliefs lock us into a narrow channel where we do what we are told and act as expected.

But this kind of attitude is destructive, for it suppresses all desire, squelches the imagination and leads us down a path of mediocrity. It doesn’t have to be. We only need to realize those thoughts for what they are. We can rise above the negative programming.

And the first step is to be aware of those thoughts when they creep in to poison the mind.

The fact is that we are perfect as we are. We just need to draw out that perfection. Like Michaelangelo, we need to chip away at that marble block until the David emerges. That judgmental mind came into being as a result of years of the wrong conditioning.

Successful people don’t see limits. They see possibilities. Successful people don’t berate themselves or believe they can’t do anything. Despite reaching lofty heights, many of them have less talent, skills and abilities than most of the people who are satisfied with working for a paycheck. They just appear to be stronger and better.

You are far better than you give yourself credit for. Thoughts are what they are. They don’t mark you as a bad person. They can’t lock you into a prison from which there is no escape. When they pop into your mind, you have the power to dismiss them.

Of course there are those who feel a sense of comfort in such thoughts. They see themselves as victims. Since they can’t live up to an impossible dream, they accept being downtrodden and live life in anger and shame.

The mind always seeks to be filled with some thought, good or bad. Negative beliefs must be replaced with love and compassion. We cannot learn to love another unless we love ourselves. Liberation comes when we recognize the value we hold of ourselves. No one can tell us we deserve no less because we have the wrong color of skin or talk a different language.

Once you can eliminate those poisonous thoughts and you replace them with positive thoughts of love and compassion, you can then start on the road to recovery and ultimate success. The good that is you begins to stand out in the family and among friends. It helps to inspire them so they can cast off those same destructive thoughts.

Once you do that inner critic has no power and will be silenced forever.