I can’t tell you how many times I second-guessed myself.

As a kid, I remember when my oldest brother was kicked out of the house. I swore I would never “abandon” my kids like that – no matter how bad it got.

Well, things got pretty bad with my oldest kid, and 25 months ago, we enrolled him in a wilderness camp for boys with emotional issues.

You might think that this is something unsuitable for a direct sales blog, but you’d be wrong. Allow me to explain…The Inner Critic Rears Her Head

See, as a mom, I got all those “voices” going in my head. Saying things like “you’re a terrible mom” and “you never should have had kids” and “How could you be so heartless? Leaving your kid in the wilderness?”

You could say me and my inner critic had a love-hate relationship. I loved to hate her.

But as I watched my Son receive his graduation certificate, along with the hugs and praise of his fellow campers, his Chiefs, and the staff of the camp, I knew I had done the best possible thing a mother could do when we made the commitment to enroll him over two years ago.

And over that time, my relationship with my Inner Critic slowly transformed from a love-hate relationship into one of tolerance and maybe even mutual respect.

Maybe.

That is, until this past week, when I “got rid of her” for good.

Well, I didn’t really get rid of her. I transformed her. She’s no longer my Inner Critic, she’s my Inner Ally. I’ve already written about specifics on my personal blog, as well as my website for action-oriented entrepreneurs, so I wanted to bring this piece right to the heart of what many direct sellers struggle with: self-sabotage.

Maybe you’ve been thinking about taking a course, or improving your skills, but you questioned whether or not you’d actually get any value out of it. Not because the course was bad, but because you’ve not had good luck in the past with completing projects you start, or “something” always seems to happen to keep you from completing it.

So often, we let our inner critic run roughshod over us, preventing us from stepping into the role of successful business owner that we crave so much.

You can’t entirely blame the Inner Critic, tho. When I took Andrea Patten’s course, I learned that our inner critic, is essentially a hold over safety mechanism from our caveman days. It was designed to keep us safe, and in one piece, but it failed to evolve as we evolved, and it still sees any kind of change/improvement as a threat to our well being and safety. As a result, many of the things that would actually improve your life (or your business) get pushed away by our Inner Critic because it (wrongly) believes that it would be dangerous for us if we made that change.

From Inner Critic To Inner Ally

So how do you transform this relationship? First, you need to recognize that the fear response is normal. Then, you have to take steps to build trust with your inner critic, just like you would a real person in your life – because, in a way, your Inner Critic is VERY real.

Wouldn’t you rather it be an Ally on your side, helping you make better decisions that will actually improve your life and your direct sales business?

Yeah. Me too.

It begins by giving yourself permission to make the transformation. Remember what I always say: you are the most important product your company has to offer. If you’re not taking care of YOU (and valuing yourself), how can you expect anyone else to do it for you?

My inner critic used to cause me all kinds of problems – not to mention all the missed opportunities because of my own self-sabotaging behavior. Now, with a little help from a friend, I’ve been able to transform that relationship and essentially get rid of my inner critic once and for all – by turning her into my greatest ally!

Help Yourself and Help The Camp, Too

The amazing results I’ve seen in just the few days since completing Andrea’s course have been mind-boggling. When I told her about my son, she wanted to do something extra special to help me celebrate his graduation. So in honor of Valentine’s Day, and loving yourself (as well as celebrating my kid’s graduation), Andrea has agreed to donate half the profits from her program to the camp. Talk about a win-win-win-win-win! You get help transforming your inner critic into an inner ally, Andrea gets to spread her message, the camp gets a great gift to help continue the mission of helping troubled boys, and I get to play hero to you and the camp. And to be clear, I don’t make a dime of this. Andrea is doing this out of the goodness of her heart to support a cause I’m very passionate about.

See, Andrea’s program did for me exactly what camp did for my kid – and it didn’t take me 25 months isolated in the wilderness to do it. In a matter of a few days, I had a new perspective and healthier relationship with my new Inner Ally. I’m making more confident decisions from a place of empowerment, which means healthier choices for my life and business with much less debating inside my head about things. Now, I can see in myself the same level of confidence and clarity that I see in my son.

If it’s something you struggle with, like so many direct sellers I know, you owe it to yourself to at least check out Andrea’s program. For me, it was fun, fast, and easy to do. I think you’ll feel the same way.

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