Beat the Critics Part 3
The Self
It’s easy to blame our problems on other people. In fact we’re very skillfull in blaming people and circumstances.
For example:
“The judges are out to get me.” “My family doesn’t believe in me.” You can fill in the blank. There is no doubt that you will have to overcome the criticisms and concerns of others, just like I mentioned above, but the main obstacle facing us is US.
I’m going to go a little “countercultural” here and try to explode a common myth we have all heard. It’s the myth of “listening to our hearts.” You know how it goes — if you just listen to your heart, you’ll be just fine, etc.
I think our biggest problem in life is that we do just that — we listen to ourselves.
I’m going to propose just the opposite. I think we need to start talking to ourselves. Where do I get that idea
from? Actually it comes from Psalm 42:5. Don’t worry, I won’t preach to you. Read it for yourself. I want to relay to you what the great preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones said about it.
He wrote, “Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. [Now this is what the psalmist did]: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why are you cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.’”
I know you’ve got a list of “could haves” and “should haves.” We all do. I’ve got them. I’ve got a choice to make.
Either I can live in the past and listen to my self beat me up OR I can start talking to myself and doing what I know I need to do to be successful.
My choice is to defy myself. What’s your choice?
Beat the critics.
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