Michelle 'Mace' Curran

But one of the things that I do with people to help them recognize it is an exercise where we go, we call it going to war with your inner critic.

And they actually write down the physical attributes that that negative inner voice would have, what it sounds like, what it looks like.

They give it a name.

And I know for me personally, I realized that so many of my business decisions, I was filtering through this

this inner voice, this critic that was, I guess, the world's idea of what the perfect fighter pilot would be.

So it was an older male, super tactical, experienced fighter pilot who wasn't a real person, was kind of just made up of society's expectations and the pressures that I felt my entire career.

And as I'm writing my book, as I'm putting stuff out on social media, as I'm doing a speech, I would be like,

Who am I to tell my story?

What makes me so special?

How dare I become a thought leader in this space that's full of amazing people?

And so I think we all have that version.

And giving it characteristics, mine's name is Stan, giving it characteristics and a name.

Now when it shows up, you're just like, oh, I know what this is.

I see it for what it is.

And I can choose to ignore it or or listen to it.

I get to choose what I do, though.

Yeah.

And then talking to someone else about it, a mentor, a peer, someone else who's in your same space dealing with similar pressures.

I almost guarantee they're going to tell you they felt the same way.

And that's the normalizing it part.