Jenni (Benningfield) Black is a former professional athlete, a mental performance coach, and founder of Inner Opponent Coaching. As a certified professional coach, Jenni specializes in working with high-performing leaders, athletes, coaches, and teams.
Self-talk: your inner voice can be a source of encouragement or, when negative, take the form of an inner critic or hater, amplifying self-doubt and fears.
Your inner voice is you versus you.
Every day, it’s you versus your limiting beliefs, fears, inconsistency, comparison to others, inactions, and everything else your inner opponent screams at you.
As a result, it profoundly shapes your perspective, constructs your reality, and acts as the lens through which you view yourself and the world. How you communicate with yourself directly impacts your beliefs, emotions, and actions, influencing how you interpret experiences, navigate challenges, and engage with others. In essence, it plays a vital role in your daily well-being.
When your inner critic becomes so incredibly loud that it is hard to focus or listen to anything else, your reaction may be to find a way to mute it when, in fact, turning down the volume or changing the tune of the inner critic may be a better answer.
The great news is that you can train your self-talk. Just like strengthening a muscle at the gym, you can develop more positive, empowering, and constructive inner dialogue through intentional and repetitive practice.
As a mental performance coach, I teach my clients this 5 step game plan to shift their inner critic into an inner champion.
Step 1: Build awareness: Identify what is there
What is my inner critic saying?
When does it show up the loudest?
Step 2: Challenge it: Investigate the truth of it
How true or accurate is this thought or story?
What evidence supports or contradicts it?
Step 3: Personify it: Reduce its power by creating distance from it
Name your inner critic.
What does it look and sound like?
Step 4: Partner with it: Accept it rather than resist it
What lesson can I learn from my inner critic?
What might it be trying to protect me from?
Step 5: Reframe it: Change the story
What do I want my inner voice to say instead?
How can I assign it a new, more supportive role?
By following these steps, you can begin to transform your inner dialogue from self-doubt to self-empowerment.
Here are some examples of what an inner critic and inner champion could sound like
Inner Critic | Inner Champion |
“I always mess up.” | “Mistakes are part of growth.” |
“I’m not good enough.” | “I am learning and improving.” |
“If I miss this shot, we will lose, and my team will hate me.” | “Trust my process and preparation. I am not defined by my outcome.” |
What to try
Start using a thought journal to track your self-talk throughout the day.
How to use it
Carry the journal with you, and whenever your inner critic makes a loud, unhelpful statement, follow these 5 steps:
Write down the thought or story your inner critic is telling you.
Reflect on what triggered it to surface and get loud.
Note how it impacted you emotionally or physically.
Explore what fear or belief might be connected to this thought.
Reframe the message into something empowering, encouraging, and positive.
Why do this?
This practice helps you gain awareness of your inner critic’s messages, identify patterns, and reframe these thoughts so that managing your self-talk becomes a habit that serves and supports you rather than holding you back.
Additional tip for success
Stay consistent by making it a daily practice.
Track patterns to identify repetitive themes.
Focus on growth by ending with a positive thought/statement.
To learn more about how to turn your inner critic into an inner champion, feel free to connect with me.
Read more from Jenni (Benningfield) Black
Jenni (Benningfield) Black, Mental Performance Coach
Jenni (Benningfield) Black, a former professional athlete and mental performance coach, discovered the life-changing impact of mental performance during her final year of professional basketball, helping her overcome the mental and emotional challenges of retirement and inspiring her to earn a master’s degree in sports psychology. Driven by this passion, she founded Inner Opponent Coaching to help high performers break through mental barriers and create a game plan to succeed in what truly matters to them.
