I wrote this because I need to read this myself.
I'm down on myself right now. It's one-thirty in the morning, and, again, I've procrastinated.
“… Why do I keep doing this to myself? Stupid, dumb, …”
Overall I'm better company for myself than I have been, but not tonight.
Let's try to change that.
What are some ways to not be so hard on yourself?
Glad you asked.
Realize that progress is not linear.
Perhaps you've seen some version of this illustration:
There will be days that are a ten out of ten, and days that are a one out of ten.
There may even be days that are a negative 17 out of ten.
That's all right. Sometimes leaks happen, and you have to spend time fixing them.
Then the tank can fill up again.
Realize how far you've come already.
I've posted 84 articles on Medium in 2024.
I posted 60 articles on my blog in all of 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 combined.
Taking this year on average, I'm doing well, even if the past few days were poor.
Even taking tonight over the past few nights, I'm doing well simply by “shipping product”.
It takes only a moment to put a bad day into its proper perspective.
Realize that you don't see the people who aren't producing.
Comparison is the thief of joy, but that doesn't make it any easier to not compare oneself to others.
I regularly interact with creators online who are further along than I am.
But there's survivorship bias in there. I found them because they were producing, not because they weren't.
There's a broad expanse of the population that haven't started producing, and may never start.
We're comparing ourselves with an elite group already.
Realize that everyone struggles.
I've heard many times that it's best to forgive people having a bad day, because you often don't know what they're going through.
They may be using all of their physical and emotional strength just to hold things together.
Why don't we show this same kindness to ourselves?
Realize that you've survived 100% of your bad days so far.
As Steven Wright said, “I intend to live forever. So far, so good.”
As Billy Idol said, “It's a nice day to start again.”
Each day we live is a fresh day to try again.
It's all we can do.
Let's try not to get in our own way as we try again.
Thanks for reading!
Hi, I'm John and I encourage entrepreneurship in people, including myself.
Join 300+ savvy people with my Solid Cash Tips newsletter for regular insights on side hustling and saving money, with a generous portion of productivity, habit-building and working smarter.
Photo by Lauren McConachie on Unsplash