The Psychology of Money - An Investment Manager\'s Guide to Beating the Market

8. Its objective evaluations of situations help you to behave
   appropriately and with self-discipline.


9. It helps you to get appropriate consultation and advice
   without making you feel that this is a sign of inadequacy.


10. It can direct you to self-improvement as growth or as an
    adventure rather than as a chore, because nothing is
    “wrong” with you. It does not talk about symptoms or
    problems.

As I said earlier, in my own creative work this transformation

from critic to ally has made all the difference. It has been hugely

freeing. An example? I rarely suffer from the dreaded writer’s block

now. I can sit in front of a blank page, write for a while, set it

aside, then read it, and calmly state, “Yuck, this is awful.” In the

past, I would have found diversions to keep me from even attempt-

ing the writing. Assuming that somehow I did manage to sit and

create, I dreaded the inevitable two-hour critique that would fol-

low. (“You call THAT an insightful piece of writing?! Blah, blah,

blah... ”) The result? Much lower creative output. Now, though,

the process is very different, with the critic as ally. I enjoy the cre-

ative process. I know that sometimes I’ll strike oil and sometimes

it’s a dry hole. Just keep drilling. Importantly, I don’t get discour-

aged; I’m ready to try again later that day. Creating this personal

safety has been the key.

A word of caution. I showed this material to a colleague in the

money management business and his response was, “I don’t have

a problem censoring myself, I just let whatever I’m thinking fly.”

Right. He does. Because of this, his coworkers blanch at the thought

of brainstorming with him. His internal critic becomes an external

critic, slicing and dicing others at will. If a person has a critic—

internal or external—that is running rampant, he won’t foster a

safe environment for creativity. He probably won’t get the feed-

back that he needs to change anything, either. Why? Because he

has already intimidated his coworkers, who are his main source of

constructive feedback.

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