Ways to deal with internal criticism

In our work on voluntary project management with youngsters and young adults across Europe, we are often confronted with strong negative opinions and reactions among learners. As these negative thoughts often come from within, participants often need support in dealing with them.

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40 minutes

copied template and pens

5-30 people

mgd/K. Dorota

motivation, reflection, criticism

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Related:

• Active Citizenship Education

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Handbook #1
Steps toward action

M. Gawinek-Dagargulia, E. Skowron, N. Zimmermann

First handbook of our Handbooks for Facilitators: Read more

Goals

• Participants reflect their way of internal criticism
• They become familiar with a preventive technique for limiting it

Steps

Introduce five different types of internal criticism.

Doubts	Reactions
This is a bad idea	Constructive criticism in the form of a proposal: "And what would your alternative to that be?"
People will not like it	Combating generalizations and making them more concrete: "Whom exactly do you mean?" Showing different perspectives: "Do you know people who will like it?"
Others did it already	Relevance is more important than innovation: "Change isn’t always about bright new ideas; an idea must be relevant for people."
Others will do it better	Use good experience: '"Learn from others." Feed forward: "Imagine a situation in which you already did something similar in a successful way - how did you deal with it then?"
I am not the manager type	Bring it on the level of small steps: "What realistic first steps could you take with your competencies and capacities?"

2. Ask your participants or your mentee/student to imagine past situations where they felt this inner criticism. What helped them to overcome it?

3. Which argument is typically for the person? How does the here proposed reaction sound?

4. Develop a personal motivational motto in pairs:

Let your participants choose a disturbing label. Then make them break the statement into “simple pieces” by trying to find logical foundations for it. If participants conclude that the statement simply isn’t rooted in reality, they can create a new sentence, statement, or a rule that constructively motivates them. This is very helpful in the process of tracking down what they really want, and what fuels their “inner fire.”

The list can be long and filled with any kind of potential doubt. Writing these doubts down and giving them names brings relief in and of itself.

Experience

A very successful method for dealing with such labels by changing them into positive affirmation, which then motivates us and pushes us toward action.

Source

• M. Gawinek-Dagargulia, E. Skowron, N. Zimmermann (Ed.): Steps toward Action; Empowerment for self-responsible initiative; Help your learners to discover their vision and to turn it into concrete civic engagement; Facilitator Handbook #1; MitOst Editions 2016