Have you ever wanted to silence your inner critic – that inner voice that is judging you at every turn?

Using Positive Intelligence, you can. 

Let’s play a little game…

Think of something right now that you have been judging or criticizing yourself for – something that’s been bothering you about you.

Maybe you’ve told yourself there’s something you shouldn’t have said or should have said or something you shouldn’t have done or should have done.  Hear your inner critical voice having a go at you.

Think of that judgement or criticism right now.

Have you got it?  Excellent.  Now I’m going to take you through a little process that I learned through Positive Intelligence.

Silence Your Inner Critic Using Positive Intelligence

Watch the Video to Silence Your Inner Critic

Listen to the Podcast to Silence Your Inner Critic

Silence Your Inner Critic By Doing PQ Reps

Practice Doing PQ Reps

Take the fingertip of one hand and the fingertip of your other hand and touch the two fingertips together.

Lightly rub those fingertips together until you can feel the ridges on the fingertips.

And now take the fingertips of the one hand, all five fingertips, and rub them gently on the fingertips of the other hand, feeling all the sensations as you do that.  Do this for 10 seconds.

And now, slowly bring those fingertips down onto the palm of your hand, gently, feeling all the sensations on the palm of your hand as you do so.

And now feel the weight of your feet on the floor and see if you can find each and every toe.  You may need to wiggle toes to find them.

Concentrate on finding all of your toes for 10 seconds.

And holding your hand on your chest and your stomach, just notice the gentle rising and falling of your chest and stomach as you breathe in and breathe out. Noticing the rise and fall of your chest or belly as you breathe in and breathe out, for 10 seconds.

And now notice the temperature of the air as it comes in through the nostrils, as you inhale.

And the temperature of air as it comes out the nostrils as you exhale.

Do this for 10 seconds.

If you need to, you can place your fingers below the nostrils as you breathe in, noticing the temperature, and then as you breathe out, noticing the temperature.

And now hear the furthest thing away that you can hear. So just listening out for what is the furthest sound you can hear in the distance.

Listen for 10 seconds.

And now hearing the closest thing that you can hear, for another 10 seconds.

And if you haven’t heard the sound of your own breathing yet, listen for that now.

Enjoy the sound of the breathing for the next 10 seconds.

Mood Check

There you go.  You just did your first round of PQ Reps from Positive Intelligence.

Now, think back to whatever you were judging yourself for – that inner voice that had reared its head….

How does that feel now to you compared to how it felt just a couple of minutes ago?

Do you find there’s less of a charge? Do you feel a little bit better in yourself?

And, most importantly, did you silence your inner critic (even just a little bit)? 

Then you’re off to a good start.

As you continue to do these PQ reps, you will build your Sage Powers and Sage Perspective.  You will feel calmer and more in control. In time, you will find that you are able to silence your inner critic more often and more quickly.

What is Your Inner Critic?

What is our inner critic?  It’s our inner critical voice, the negative self talk that we have. Not just self talk, but the thoughts we have, those negative thoughts we have about ourselves or others or situations.

It’s the perfectionist in us that wants us to do everything absolutely perfectly and gets cross with us if we don’t.

And the same voice that wants others to do things perfectly and gets cross if they don’t.

Or that looks at the world having to be perfect and if it isn’t, gets angry or upset or disappointed or sad.

It’s the pessimist inside us that has those negative feelings and thoughts and it’s what Positive Intelligence calls your Judge Saboteur.

So, who or what are we criticizing? Who or what are we judging?  We’re judging ourselves. We’re judging others. And we’re judging circumstances.  And all this judging, criticizing and negativity is causing us a lot of harm.

How Does Our Inner Critic Affect Us?

So how does our inner critic affect us? What harm is it causing?

It lowers our self esteem. It creates stress and anxiety. It damages our relationships.

It negatively even impacts our health and well being and it lowers our productivity at work as well.

So let’s get into that a little bit deeper.

How Does Our Inner Critic Affect Our Self-Worth?

If we look at the self worth, what our inner critic and judge does to us is it creates more guilt, shame, self blame and unforgiveness, and all this lowers self esteem and can create mental breakdown.

A very strong inner critic can cause someone to be severely depressed and even commit suicide.

How Does Our Inner Critic Affect Our Health?

When we look at our health, it is our mental health, first and foremost, that takes the knock, as I’ve just mentioned.

As we inflict negativity and judgement on ourselves, we will become more stressed, more anxious and more depressed.

And that can lead to chronic physical tension as well which leads to aches and pains in our body and might even lead to something like arthritis, over time.

Negative self-talk also lowers our immunity as well and aging faster than we should.

When we’re beating ourselves up all the time or frustrated at the world, when we’re riddled with negative self talk, our blood pressure goes up.  This can cause heart disease and even heart attack and death, depending on how stressed, anxious, depressed we are and how much chronic tension we’re holding in our bodies.

How Does Our Inner Critic Affect Our Relationships?

When it comes to our relationships, having that harsh inner voice and being very critical of our partners or children, to the people that we work with, our colleagues and friends.

When we have a strong inner critical voice, we tend to also be very critical outwardly and it affects our relationships.  We become resentful, we become hurtful. This causes conflict.

This can eventually lead then to isolation and loneliness because who wants to be around somebody who is constantly critical, bitter, argumentative, and just making people’s lives a misery?   If you’re making yourself miserable, ten to one, you’re also making other people miserable.

How Does Our Inner Critic Affect Our Career?

Perfectionism in our work life or career causes us to procrastinate in our work and judge ourselves all the time.

We become unproductive, and we tend to be less creative because we’re scared to make any bold moves.  We’re doubting ourselves all the time and that leads to poor decisions in business.

Eventually this can lead to failure in your business or losing your job.  It also indicates a fixed mindset rather than a growth mindset, which means you’re less likely to experience career growth

So there is a huge impact in not silencing your inner critic.  A harsh Judge Saboteur affects every single sphere of our life.

So let’s bring on Positive Intelligence. Let’s introduce you to a branch of Science that can help you with this.

What is Positive Intelligence?

Positive intelligence was developed by a Stanford University Lecturer named Shirzad Chamine.

Shirzad Chamine is the New York times Best selling author of the book Positive Intelligence.

Positive intelligence is the capacity of your mind to choose positive, productive, loving thoughts over negative thoughts and fears.

What is PQ?

PQ is the Positive Intelligence Quotient, similar to Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ) or Intellectual Intelligence quotient, (IQ), you also now have PQ.

PQ is measuring our brain’s ability to focus on positive loving thoughts over negative thoughts and fears.

How Do We Raise Our PQ?

How do we become more positively intelligent?

By developing self command, we’re going to improve our mental fitness, we’re going to weaken our saboteurs and we’re going to strengthen our sage powers and our sage perspective.

And that’s what you’ll learn in this article, video or podcast –  so you can starting raising your PQ today.

You’ve already learned how to do some PQ reps, but there’s more to it than that.

Positive intelligence is clinically proven to rewire our brains.

The Science – How PQ Rewires the Brain

On the left side of this image, you’ll see your survival brain, the limbic system, the amygdala, where all of our fears and our saboteurs reside.

Doing PQ Reps every day, multiple times a day, strengthens the neural pathways to the right brain and the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain you can see on the image on the right.

So you’re going to strengthen the neural pathways that go to the positive part of the brain. And you’re going to decrease the neural pathways that are going to the survival brain.

Doctors have been able to see on an MRI, when they’ve done studies with people who have done a hundred PQ reps a day for eight weeks, that the prefrontal cortex grows and the survival brain atrophies.

Isn’t that amazing?

So what are the benefits of this?

Saboteur Brain vs Sage Brain – FEAR vs LOVE

Your Saboteur Brain is where your fears reside.  It’s your survival brain. It’s mostly your left brain, your limbic system, your amygdala, and that is where all the fears reside.

So if we look at these two parts of the brain, you have got all your saboteurs, all your fears in the left side.  This side of the brain deals with all your basic human needs.

If you had to look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, your basic needs and your safety needs are all sitting in the saboteur brain.

When we start to strengthen the Sage Brain, which is where love resides, you’re going to find that you are thriving and not just surviving. You’re not just in survival mode anymore. You’re moving into thriving.

This is where mostly your right brain is, your prefrontal cortex, as I mentioned, and this is where your five sage powers reside.

We’re going to get into the sage powers and the sage perspective shortly.

And this is also where your aspirations are.  So we’re moving up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs away from your basic needs, your safety needs into love and belonging, self esteem and self actualization.

And you can actually see it happening on an MRI as you do the PQ Reps, as you move into that Sage brain.

So the PQ Program is proven to move you from that fear-based brain to the sage brain, rewiring the brain, building those neural pathways and moving you away from fear and into love.   How exciting is that?

How to Silence Your Inner Critic with Positive Intelligence

So let’s silence your inner critic with PQ, with Positive Intelligence. How are we going to do this?

There are five different ways that I’m going to take you through today.

1. Develop Self Awareness and Self Command
2. Recognize and label The Judge, or label that inner critic
3. Practice doing PQ Reps
4. Learn what the Sage Perspective is and build the five Sage Powers.
5. Develop Self Compassion

This will help you build that self esteem, so you can enjoy more love and belonging and eventually reach self actualization.

You’re going to struggle to reach your full potential if you don’t get command of this beautiful brain of yours and start building the prefrontal cortex and right brain – the Sage Brain or the PQ Brain.

So let’s go.

How to Develop Self Awareness and Self Command

To develop self awareness, we recommend that you start journaling about your repetitive thoughts – clinical psychologists call it ruminating thoughts.

When you wake up during the night and you’re having those self critical thoughts, you’re worrying about things that are happening at work and you’re having self doubt or fears are coming up.

Journal about all of the fears that are coming up in your day or waking you up in the middle of the night.

Now, note which of your repetitive thoughts that you have every day are helpful, which are harmful, and which are neutral.

Start identifying what fears you have, what you are doing to self sabotage.

Then, practice self command by intercepting the Judge or the inner critic when you notice any critical or negative thoughts coming up.

Start to notice and become aware, that is the first step.  And for some people that is enough. Just noticing that it’s your judge talking, your inner critic talking and not you.

Label Your Inner Critic

It improves self-command greatly if you take the next step – labelling your inner critic.

So first, notice when your inner critic is speaking to you (or shouting at you) and then label it.

The challenge is that we have identified with our judge.  We have had our inner critic chatting to us jabbering away our entire lives, and it is become so insidious, so part of us, that we think that is who we really are.

We think we are a bundle of fears and  worries, and that is not actually the case.

We need to put the inner critic a little bit outside of us and realize that it is not who we really are.

One way to do this is to label your judge, label your inner critic. You’re going to give your inner critic a name that means something to you.

Then, when you notice the inner critic at play, you could say something like, Oh, there goes the judge again.  Kind of like talking to the devil on your shoulder.

Shirzad Chamine calls his judge The Executioner.  Others have called their judge The Annihilator or Darth Vader.   Shirzad spoke to a client who said his young boy called this judge The Poop-maker.

One of my clients started out calling her inner critic Judge Judy and when she realised just how harsh her judge was, she started calling her Cruella instead.

Now it’s your turn to give your judge a name.   You could come up with a funny name or a serious name.  You might even choose to use the name of a person in your head that judged you the most.  Maybe someone in your childhood who was your greatest judge or a bully at school.

Personally, I just call my inner critic the judge and I’ll go, Oh, there goes the judge again when I notice a negative thought.

Now, recall  whatever it was that was bothering you when we started out this conversation. Think back to the way you were criticizing yourself earlier, and instead say,

My judge (insert name of your judge here) thinks this, or 

My judge (insert name of your judge here) says that.

For example, my judge thinks I will never get this right so I must just stop trying.   

Name whatever it is that was bugging you and have your judge be saying that or thinking that, rather than you.  When you put your judge outside of yourself, it holds less power over you.  It’s half the battle won.

You might want to add a little giggle when you say it, laugh at your judge for being so mean, disagreeable and downright unreasonable.  Nobody’s perfect, right?

Silence Your Inner Critic by Practicing PQ Reps

The next way to silence your inner critic is to practice those PQ reps I taught you earlier.

The idea with a PQ Reps is to focus all of your attention for 10 seconds on one sensation.  Get hyper-focused on just one activity, or using just one sense.

As you focus in on one sense, you have taken your focus away from whatever you were thinking about that was bothering you, worrying you, concerning you, or stressing you out.

Here are some of the ways you can do this.

Mindful Breathing

Do some mindful breathing. Put your one hand on your chest and your other hand on your stomach and you breathe in and out noticing the gentle rise and fall of your chest or belly as you breathe in and out.

If you like,  you can also press a little harder with both hands on the chest and actually feel the gentle thumping of your heartbeat.

You can also try mindful breathing into that area, breathing into the heart,  specifically if it’s self-compassion that you’re wanting to build.

Tactile Exploration or Touch

Using your sense of touch, you can do some tactile exploration.  So, for example, the fingertip reps or wiggling toes reps we did earlier.

Tactile exploration could also be feeling the weight of your body as you’re sitting on the chair or lying on your bed or wherever you’re doing your PQ reps, or feeling the weight of your feet on the floor.

This is about just noticing what it feels like to be where we are.

Another beautiful touch PQ Rep you can try now, is you take your fingertips and hands and place them on your forehead, and slowly, gently, move down the forehead.

Slowly moving down until you can feel your eyebrows, feeling your eyebrows with your fingertips.

And then come down and feel your eyelids. And feel your eyelashes.

And then move down until you feel your nose and cheeks.  (This is probably what a blind person feels like when they are getting to know someone’s face. Get to know your own face. Get to know and love your own face while you’re at it).

And then placing your fingers below the nose, below the nostrils, notice the temperature of air going into the nostrils and the temperature of air going out the nostrils.  Do that for a few breaths, just noticing, being aware of your breath.

And then bringing your fingertips onto the lips and feel all the sensations as you touch your lips. Your lips are very sensitive, so if you go really gently, you’ll feel how sensitive they are.

And then going down to the chin.

And slowly going down back to that heart area and noticing your breath again.

Another form of tactile exploration you can do is to just notice every single toe. You might need to wiggle your toes to do this.  This is a PQ rep you can do when you’re standing in a queue.

Maybe you’re at the tax department and you’re feeling a little stressed, just wiggle your toes or rub those fingertips. Nobody will notice you’re even doing it.

In the same way, you could be in the middle of a stressful meeting and no-one will notice if you use just one hand and rub two fingertips together.

PQ Reps with Sight

Look at something in front of you, someone’s face if you’re in a conversation or an argument and notice every facial feature.  See them like you’ve never seen them before, or see something on their face you’ve never seen before.  Get your attention hyper-focused on one visual cue.

Look closely at anything with minute detail, seeing colours in vivid detail, or how the light shines on it, see both light and shadow, and notice all the textures.

PQ Reps with Sound

As mentioned earlier, listen for the sound that is furthest away or the sound that is closest to you.

If you’re listening to music, put headphones on and try listen to single out just one instrument or listen for a sound you’ve never heard before in the song.

PQ Reps with Taste or Smell

As you’re going for a walk, mindfully notice all of the smells around you.   Maybe you’re walking on the beach and notice the smell of the sea air. Notice that salty, fishy sea smell. It’s really specific.    Or if you’re walking in a forest, notice the scent of a particular tree or flower.

While you’re eating, notice the aroma of the food that you’re about to eat before you taste it, and then as you put the food into your mouth, mindfully notice what it feels like in your mouth.  The texture of the food, the taste of the food, the temperature of the food.

Notice little detail of each mouthful as you’re chewing it, and you will probably find that you will become so much more mindful about what you’re putting into your body.

Visualization or Meditation

You can also use self-hypnosis, visualization or meditation to get into the same calm state that you feel when you do PQ Reps.

Related: Meditation to Remember Who You Really Are

PQ Reps are like Reps in the Gym

With PQ Reps you build mental fitness, with Gym Reps you build physical fitness

PQ Reps are much like the reps you do when you go to the gym.

When you’re pumping iron, you’re doing muscular reps, you are building your muscles. But you know that you don’t build muscle on your first day in the gym, it happens over months, as you keep going regularly to the gym.

And that’s the same thing when you’re practicing PQ Reps – you’re building mental muscle.   And your mental muscle or mental fitness will also build up over time.

So you’re going to want to do them regularly, a few times a day, to really feel the benefit of doing PQ Reps.

How Many PQ Reps Should I Do Per Day?

When we first start practicing PQ Reps, Shirzad Chamine has recognized that most people are not able to focus for an entire minute.

1 PQ Rep is 10 seconds of hyper-focusing on one sensation or activity.

So in 10 seconds you would do 1 PQ Rep, which gives you 6 PQ Reps per minute.

But, studies have shown that initially we’re only focusing for half of that time, which means you’re only doing 3 PQ reps per minute.

This will improve as your self-command improves.  You will become better and better at being able to focus intently on just one thing.

In the PQ Program (more about that later), we aim for 36 Reps a day, which is 6 to 12 minutes a day of doing PQ.

Of course, the more PQ Reps a day you do, the quicker you will learn self-command.  Every time you notice that you’re focused on a thought or worry, rather than a PQ rep, you actively bring yourself back to doing the PQ Rep.

The more you learn self command, the more you’re in your Sage brain, feeling calm, clear and focused.

The Sage Perspective

Let’s look at the Sage perspective now.  In the video, I tell you a story that Shirzad Chamine is famous for telling. It’s in his book, it’s in his program, and he loves telling the story, and so do I.   I’ve already told this story to my friends, family and clients.   And now it’s your turn.

The Stallion Story

[00:24:58]   The way the story goes is there is a farmer who owns a beautiful stallion  and he takes the stallion into town and the stallion wins first prize.

He becomes the number one most beautiful, most powerful, the fastest stallion in town.

And the farmer  comes back home with his prize stallion and all of his neighbors gather around him excited.  They have come to celebrate with him and congratulate him for having his prize stallion.  And the farmer says to them,

Who knows what is good and what is bad?

And then, a few days later, some thieves come along because they’ve also heard about the prize stallion, and they come steal the prize stallion from the farmer.

And all of the neighbors gather around, they want to commiserate because they’re sorry for him, they’re upset about it, and the farmer says,

Who knows what is good and what is bad?

And then, a few days later the price stallion manages to break free from the thieves and find his way back to the farm. And on the way he picks up a few beautiful mares and brings these mares back to the farm with him.  And the neighbors, of course,  come around and congratulate the farmer and the farmer again says,

Who knows what is good and what is bad?

Three days later, the farmer’s son is breaking in one of the mares and he breaks his leg because he falls off one of the mares.

And the neighbors  come around to commiserate with the farmer, but they know what he’s going to say,

Who knows what is good and what is bad?

But as it turns out, three days later, war breaks out in the country and some people from the army come around to conscript all the young men from the village. But when they come out to the farm they are not able to conscript him because he has a broken leg.

So the farmer’s son does not have to go to war and, of course, the farmer’s perspective is as always,

Who knows what is good and what is bad?

Now that is the sage perspective – being okay with any circumstance, being open to all situations and circumstances being neither good or bad, and choosing always looking for the gift and opportunity in all things.

The Sage perspective is simplified a little bit in the story, because it’s a little deeper than that.

The sage perspective is actively looking out for the gift and opportunity in all things.

So it’s not just saying anything could be good or bad – it’s saying,

I choose to see this as good. I choose to see absolutely anything that could happen, anybody that I’m relating to, as a gift to me and an opportunity. 

And how you choose to perceive a situation acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s BECAUSE you choose to see all situations as good, as a gift or an opportunity, that goodness comes your way.

Let’s take a real-life example.  Perhaps you have an angry person at home, or someone you have to deal with at work, who is bothering you, what is the gift and opportunity in that?

What can you see as the gift and opportunity in having someone difficult on a daily basis?

So when you ask yourself that question, you are now venturing into the Sage Perspective.  See what awareness arises when you ask yourself how they might be a gift to you.

Who do you become?  How could this grow you as a person?  How could your leadership qualities develop as a result?  Could you learn to become more compassionate and understanding through this situation?

The 5 Sage Powers

Over time, as you’re doing PQ Reps repeatedly, a few times a day, you will find that your neural pathways are being rewired to move more into the right brain and the prefrontal cortex.  And that is where your Sage Powers reside.

Here are the 5 Sage Powers.  I like to call the Sage Powers being Zen.

1. EMPATHIZE

It’s your compassion for self, compassion for others, compassion for situations. Empathize is the first sage power, and that is the most important one we can use to silence our inner critic.

2. EXPLORE

Having a curious, open mind, developing a growth mindset.

3. INNOVATE

Having out the box thinking, coming up with creative solutions, coming up with ways that you never would have thought of if your judge was running the show, if your inner critic was creating all that self doubt in you.

4. NAVIGATE

Aligning your actions with your values – making sure that any action you take is going to be aligned with your own personal values.

5. ACTIVATE

Taking laser focused, decisive action – having the ability to take decisive action. Knowing when to respond rather than react to situations.

Developing Self-Compassion

Practicing self-compassion is akin to treating yourself the way you would treat a dear friend, or treating yourself as you would a beloved child.

There’s a beautiful self-compassion exercise we do in the Positive Intelligence Program.

Instead of telling yourself all of these horrible things about yourself, think back to what you were like when you were a child and the easiest way to do this, is to get a picture of yourself when you were a child.

Find a picture of yourself as a child.

This is a picture of me when I was a child and the caption in my scrapbook below the picture said Happy days at Happy Days Playschool.

So there I am happily playing away, not a care in the world.

If you can, choose the picture where you were happy and excited, maybe opening up presents, or making sandcastles on the beach or playing with your childhood pet.  Find a picture where you are happy, smiling and in your element.

Now, do a PQ Rep or two and look deeply at that picture of yourself.  Look intently, hyper-focus on the picture as if you’re doing a visual PQ rep, and find the essence of yourself in that picture.  Look into your own eyes as a child and find that essence that was always there.

And notice what your essence is, who you really are.  Notice your innocence, your adorableness.  Connect with younger you and feel deep love for yourself.

Find that very essence and give yourself love and then notice which brain you’re in, whether you’re in your PQ Sage brain or whether you are in your fear based brain, your survival brain.

Can you feel the same self-compassion for yourself now?  Can you see yourself as you once were as a child? Sweet, innocent, playful, light and loved, so loved?   Would you expect this little child to do everything perfectly and say everything perfectly?

Or could you cut yourself some slack?

Why Silence Your Inner Critic?  The Benefits

Here are the benefits of silencing your inner critic.

Higher Self-Worth

You’re going to feel more self worth and more self love. You’re going to respect yourself more.

You’re going to forgive yourself for all the little tiny you’ve done (or haven’t done) and all the huge things you’ve done (or haven’t done).  You will let it all go.

You’ll develop a higher self-esteem.  More confidence. You’ll feel empowered.

Improved Health and Wellbeing

Your health is going to improve because you’re going to feel calmer, more joyful, and more fulfilled.

And you’ll increase your mental fitness.  This is a mental fitness program. When you’re doing reps in the gym, you’re building your physical fitness. When you’re doing PQ reps, you’re building your mental fitness.

And mental fitness also means mental wellness.  Which is why you’ll no longer feel depressed or anxious.

You’ll enjoy vibrant wellbeing, mentally and physically.

And this will create a healthy heart, a strong immune system and you’ll even sleep better at night.

Harmonious Relationships

Your relationships will benefit too.  You’ll become kinder to your partners, to your work colleagues and your friends.

You’ll feel more connected, more compassionate and have more empathy.

You’ll become more supportive and considerate as you slow things down, responding calmly, rather than reacting.

You’ll feel more grateful and enjoy harmonious loving relationships.  You can expect to have more love in your life as you do this work, you will become more self-loving and you will also have more love coming back to you.

Successful Career

In your career, you’ll be feeling more relaxed and also more motivated, which will make you more productive.

You’ll feel safe to be more creative. Remember that out the box thinking you’re going to develop?

You will become an action taker, taking that laser focused, decisive action.

You will have the discernment of the sage rather than the judge. Instead of criticizing, you will be discerning and making better decisions.

All this will amount to you becoming more successful.

So, How Will You Raise Your PQ?

You can take everything you learned today and do those PQ Reps on your own. You can start being more mindful. You can start doing more meditation and mindfulness.

Or, you can join the PQ Mental Fitness Program that will teach you all of this, step-by-step, with Shirzad Chamine as your Teacher, and me as your Coach and Guide.

PQ Mental Fitness Program with Shirzad Chamine

The PQ Program is a six-week program.  It is led by Shirzad Chamine himself. Remember, Shirzad is a Stanford University Lecturer and the New York Times bestselling author of the book Positive Intelligence.

And I will also guide you through the program.

The program is going to rewire your brain and create new neural pathways through consistent daily practice.

The only way to get the full effect of positive intelligence is to create lasting habits and to create lasting habits, you need to do consistent practice.

And as you do that PQ practice, you’ll find it becomes more and more effective at getting you into that sage brain faster. And that’s the idea that you want to just be able to move to the sage brain. Faster than you were before.

The beauty of the PQ Program is that it’s app-driven. The app reminds you 3 times a day to do your PQ practice.

Weakening Your Saboteurs

Every single one of us has The Judge Saboteur and The Judge is the most insidious, because when you have that negative self talk and that harsh inner critic, you have low self esteem and out of having low self esteem is that feeling of not enough-ness, that feeling of not being good enough and not doing well enough, which wreaks havoc in all our lives.

But there are also some other saboteurs that we might have.   For example, we might have the hyper-achiever or the hyper-vigilant saboteur or the victim saboteur.  As mentioned there are 10 in total.

Initially, you’ll take an assessment where you will identify your accomplice saboteurs.

If you’re curious, you can take the saboteur assessment right now.

As you go through the program, you are going to work with the two top saboteurs that are affecting you the most.

So you’ll do the assessment and then the program is tweaked so that you will get to do the focus exercises that are based on your top saboteurs, so you can weaken those saboteurs as well as the judge – your inner critic.

So what do you get when you join the PQ Program?

What You Get in the PQ Program

What does the PQ Program Include?

● PQ App – available on Apple and Android, as well as a web-based version
● Focus – weekly hour-long videos and daily 15-minute app-guided exercises
● Gym – includes guided sessions to practice and log PQ reps, the foundation to building your mental fitness
● Community – the internal social network for the PQ Program
● Modules – lessons essential for completing the program PLUS the audio version of Positive Intelligence read by Shirzad Chamine
● Pod – support and accountability group, to meet once a week to discuss the week’s training

Pod Meetings

The PQ Program includes a Pod facilitated by a Coach or Guide (me).

I lead a Pod meeting on Zoom once a week on a Monday or Tuesday to discuss the weekly video and focus activities as a group.

Clients in a Pod are 500% more likely to stick with daily practices long enough to build lasting habits.

What’s the Time Commitment?

As mentioned, the Program runs for 6 weeks and each week of the program has a different theme or topic.

Each Saturday morning, a video by Shirzad Chamine will drop in the app about the week’s topic.

In the 6 weeks, you’ll receive 7 videos in total, all about an hour long.

Week 1: Self-Command

Week 2: The Judge Saboteur

Week 3: Your Accomplice Saboteur 

Week 4: The Sage Perspective

Week 5: Sage Power Empathize

Week 6: Sage Powers

Week 7: Work and Life Applications 

You have from Saturday to Monday night to watch the video.

Then we meet on Zoom on Monday or early Tuesday for our Zoom call, which will take half an hour to an hour.

From Tuesday to Friday, you’ll receive a focus exercise on the app at 7am, 9am, 12 noon and 3pm that each take around 2 minutes to complete.

At 6pm, you fill out a quick Journal entry on the app, and you’re done for the day.

You are also encouraged to listen to or read at least the first 8 chapters of the audio book, Positive Intelligence.

So, in total, you can expect to spend 1 to 2 hours a week listening to the video and audiobook.

And 10 to 15 minutes a day doing PQ Gym and Focus Exercises.

So who’s excited about this program? Are you ready to silence your inner critic?

Join the Waitlist for the PQ Program

If you’re interested in joining the program, you can get more details and join the waitlist here.

Why is there a Waitlist? 

Because we do the PQ Program as a POD – a Pod is a group of 3 to 5 people who are taking the PQ Program at the same time.  We all work on the Program together as accountability partners or vulnerability partners and meet once a week on Zoom.

It is 500% more effective when you do the PQ Program in a Pod with a Guide or Leader (that’s me).

Get more details and join the waitlist for the PQ Mental Fitness Program

And please consider sharing this information with your friends, especially if you have friends that have a strong inner critic they would like to silence.

Any Questions?

If you have questions for me regarding the PQ Program, book a call on my calendar below and I’ll gladly answer them.