Coaching practices for The Inner Game Quieting Self 1 in a New Job

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Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • The instant my mind has nothing to hold onto it floods with instructions and second-guessing
  • While I’m actually performing there’s this running commentary telling me I’m blowing it, and I take every word of it as fact in the moment
  • When I practice the same thing at the same level it gets boring, and the boredom is exactly when my mind wanders off and starts criticizing
  • One part of me wants out, another part won’t let me, and they just war with each other on a loop
  • Every time something doesn’t land I turn it into "I’m failing at this" instead of just noticing what actually happened

Practices that may help

  1. The Inner Game: Quieting Self 1
    Timothy Gallwey’s Inner Game framework distinguishes Self 1 — the critical, instructing voice that interferes with performance — from Self 2, the body’s natural learning intelligence. Performance improves not by trying harder but by reducing Self 1’s interference so Self 2 can perform. The model is widely applied in coaching, athletics, and business; controlled-trial evidence is limited but the underlying mechanisms align with research on choking, explicit monitoring, and attentional redirection.
  2. Give Self 2 a concrete focus anchor
    Occupy Self 1 with a specific sensory observation task so it stops issuing unhelpful instructions.
    The Inner Game: Quieting Self 1
  3. Identify your Self 1 interference in real time
    Notice when your inner critic is instructing, judging, or catastrophizing — and name it as Self 1.
    The Inner Game: Quieting Self 1
  4. Find the challenge that produces full engagement
    Match the difficulty of what you are practicing to what fully engages your attention without overwhelming it.
    The Inner Game: Quieting Self 1
  5. Working with Multiple Selves (Chair Work in CFT)
    Give voice to different internal parts — the critic, the anxious self, the compassionate self — to understand and change the dialogue.
    Compassion-Focused Therapy: Calming the Inner Critic
  6. Use the performance-feedback loop without Self 1
    Treat every outcome as information, not a verdict — adjust without judging.
    The Inner Game: Quieting Self 1
  7. The inner critic dialogue
    Give the inner critic a voice on paper and then respond — the goal is dialogue, not silencing.
    Shadow Work
  8. Working With Your Inner Critic
    The inner critic is not silenced by arguing with it or fighting it — it is disarmed by recognizing it as a learned protective strategy and responding with the same warmth you would offer a struggling friend. Self-compassion practices show reliable effects on self-criticism and psychological well-being in multiple meta-analyses.
  9. Update the map as parts shift
    Revisit and revise the map after significant inner work — the system changes, and the map should too.
    IFS Parts Mapping, Made Practical
  10. Practice letting go of outcomes
    Release attachment to results during performance so attention can stay with the process.
    The Inner Game: Quieting Self 1

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