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Dreamscape Jewelry Design

January 20, 2018: What To Do With A “Jiminy Critic”?

“A conscience is that small still voice, that people won’t listen too.” Jiminy Cricket-Pinnochio


During the first three weeks of January, I’ve embarked on the challenge to declutter my home, organize my studio and business for tax purposes, and begin to play again with my watercolors.  The first task of decluttering is a daunting one that is taking much more time that I had originally planned on. It is incredible how much “stuff” can be accumulated over the years and we are now facing the reality of all that gathering.  The second task, with tax returns in mind, is a dreaded but yearly necessity.  I know that it will take a week, but procrastination has its penalties, and I am dragging my feet getting started. My studio also reflects the aftermath of a busy season. Through the onset of a painting class, I do have my watercolors out again and have actually completed two paintings.  But during all of these endeavors, I’ve had to listen to the inner critic’s voice scolding me and asking “Why am I not more organized? ,How come I’m so scattered?, and in the painting realm, Why am I not good enough?”

When I realized this week that the voice was getting too strident, I also recognized it had no purpose.  It wasn’t going to make the decluttering go faster, it wasn’t going to get my taxes done, and only practice was going to help me be a better painter.

When I was a teacher, I told my students each year about a Jiminy Critic who like Pinnochio’s Jiminy Cricket, “sat on our shoulder “continually giving us feedback.  Whereas the Cricket’s role in Pinnochio, was to be his conscience (whose advice he often ignored), our Jiminy Critic could be beneficial in trying to fine tune or improve a piece of our work and figure out what steps to take.  But the voice at times could also be discouraging, leading one to procrastinate or quit rather than forge ahead.  The trick was to recognize which messages were beneficial and which ones were defeating. In a class full of eight-year-olds, we found one way to quiet the negative voice was to imagine creative ways to “knock the mean critic” off from our shoulders.  These inventive strategies ranged from using our fingers to flick it off and literally open the window to “throw it out”, to drawing it and erasing it away.  One favorite way for the boys, was to flush the hypothetical “nasty critic” down the toilet.  The laughter that ensued seemed to bring back the positive energy to move forward.  I also taught them in times  of discouragement to instead of giving up, take pause and ask themselves the following three questions: What is going well? What things do you want to change? What do you want to do next time? Even at their young ages, it helped to get over self-defeating roadblocks.

I’ve decided to resurrect my own Jiminy Critic and determine whether or not to listen to or to banish it.  If its voice is constructive  and/or inspirational and can motivate me to move forward, I’ll listen to it.  If not, I’ll have fun thinking of imaginary ways to silence it.

So in regards to our decluttering challenge, the positive voice says “we are making progress with three rooms done.” For change, “we’ll think twice before purchasing something asking ourselves; do we really, truly need it,?” And our final step will be to “donate the full boxes to a local charity.”

Taxes will get done.  I’ll commit time each day to push forward. As I practice with my watercolors, in each painting, I’ll find something to love, recognize parts I could have improved on and finally think about what I will do differently on my next foray. No labels, no judgement, just an honest assessment that reflect my true self where I am and where I need to go.

Painting 2-Corea, Maine January 2019

 Do you have a Jiminy Critic on your shoulder?  How does it inspire you? What do you do when it doesn’t behave?  

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