Navigating through Self-Criticism

• My job is to get better at things.

• Cracking an interview is not in my hand. There are tons of other factors involved.

• As long as I’m working on getting better at things I wasn’t good before, I’m doing my job.

• Trying and failing is a major part of getting better. In fact, identifying where I fail is an integral part of getting better at it.

• So I should reward failing as well - cause it means I did try. I did work on my goal of getting better.

• As long as I’m working on it, I should feel proud.

• And the fact that it bothers me that I am failing at things - means I do care a lot about this tiny little goal of mine.

• So I just gotta dust myself off and try again. It might need more time but as long as I come out of it being better at things - I did my job.

• It is “one of the lies”. But it’s a lie I need right now. It’s a tool to keep myself sharp. I am at my best when I’m in the “holy fuck that sounds interesting, let me try” mood.

• Trick to keep me working at it - when things go fuzzy and emotions are taking over, think out loud. It’s the steering wheel.