Are You a Creator or a Criticizer?

A good thing to remember
A better thing to do
Work with the construction gang
Not the wrecking crew.

Dale Carnegie said, “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most do.”  Do you find yourself falling into critic mode more often than you’d like? It’s easy to do. We live in a society of critics. It sometimes seems much easier to be negative and critical of everything from the latest movie to our neighbor’s choice of hairstyle. But we can learn to resist this impulse. It’s destructive not only to our fellowmen but to us too.

Dwelling on the negative, broadcasting it outward, will lower your vibration.  After all, you can’t throw mud without getting some on your own hands. Nobody likes a critic.  Like the Yiddish proverb says, “A critic is like the girl who can’t dance so she says the band can’t play.”

You may have good intentions in general, but you’ve heard what the man said about the road to hell and its paving stones. So instead we can connect good intentions with creative action. Many people think that once they get the motivation they will get things accomplished. Actually, the reverse is true: action precedes motivation and begets more action and motivation in an endless positive circle.

When my kids come to me with a problem, after hearing and validating it, I usually ask (and by now they know it’s coming), “How would an extraordinary person deal with that situation?” or “If you were a super-genius, what would you do next?” In no time they have a solution figured out because the super-genius and extraordinary person within themselves gets to work and figures it out! Creativity is built into every one of us; we all possess creative powers. Be brave enough to live creatively. And the bonus of that is that when you spend time improving yourself you won’t have time to criticize others.