Hi love,

One thing I've seen over and over again in the ambitious, high-achieving people who come into my work:

No one is a harsher critic of them than they are of themselves.

So if you have a mean old inner critic, if you tend to doubt yourself in the exact moments you wish you could access confidence, or constantly wonder if you're falling behind, not doing enough, or somehow f*cking up as an adult — I need you to hear this:

Stop beating up on yourself as an adult and start bringing your inner child along with you instead.

Here's something worth remembering:

You are the authority of your life.

You, and only you, when you bring real awareness to it, get to decide what you want, what you settle for, what you refuse to settle for, what you learn, what you experience.

No one else gets to write the terms of this one life you have.

And no one else gets to determine how you speak to yourself, how you feel about what you're doing or not doing, day to day. That's entirely yours to choose.

Now, if a part of you doesn't quite believe that yet, it's rarely because the opportunity to live that way isn't actually there.

Objectively, we can all agree we're allowed to say f*ck it and live intentionally. So the block was never really about practical possibility.

It's about what's been wired into your subconscious mind, quietly limiting your sense of authority over your own life.

Which is exactly why I say: bring your inner child with you.

Because here's what I want you to realize:

That harsh voice of inner criticism likely isn't even yours.

It's a voice you learned somewhere along the way. Maybe from an adult in your life, your family, school, society, or simply from what you learned you needed to be in order to feel accepted, loved, or enough.

And when you've heard that voice for long enough, it becomes really hard to distinguish between what's actually your voice and what's simply something you learned to believe.

Because think about it:

If you truly got to choose how you spoke to yourself, would you ever choose to be this hard on yourself?

Would you choose to constantly tell yourself you're behind, you're not doing enough, or you're somehow getting your own life wrong?

Probably not.

And this is a huge part of the work I do with my clients: helping them rewire that mental voice that can sometimes get so loud, and separate who they actually are from who they learned they should or needed to be.

Because underneath the criticism, perfectionism, and pressure is often a much younger part of you that learned those things for a reason.

But here's what I want you to remember:

You're not that younger version of yourself anymore.

You're an adult. And you truly are the authority of your life now.

You get to decide how you lead yourself, how you speak to yourself, what you believe about yourself, and ultimately, who you choose to become.

And there's something incredibly powerful about realizing that the voice that's been running the show doesn't have to be the voice that leads you forward.

💭 Question to reflect on this week:

What does your inner critic say to you most often — and if you knew that voice wasn't actually yours, what would you choose to say instead?

💌 P.S. If today's message resonated with you:

Here are a few upcoming ways to go deeper:

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💌 The Inner Circle

A private email community for those who want to explore these conversations, concepts, and reflections on a deeper level and move beyond simply reading for inspiration to actively using them for transformation.

💌 WITH LOVE, DOMINIQUE