Day 9 Dealing with Self-Criticism

Have you been overly critical of yourself lately? How and why have you done this?

Yes, I realised I have been overly critical of myself lately. I have to admit I've been procrastinating and struggling a lot with my part-time studies, because of the extreme fatigue I've been feeling. I opened up my Gmail inbox today and had a reminder that I have a major report due tomorrow. I felt terrible as I haven't even started it. I've completely forgotten. I felt like I'm lazy and undisciplined, and that I should have kept up with my course more effectively.

I realise that I've been overly critical of myself for being "lazy" when in fact I'm struggling to battle the fatigue. I find it makes concentrating on activities like academic study particularly difficult. I also noticed I'm making a lot of mistakes at work due to tiredness. I try to laugh it off but I feel embarrassed. For instance, today I called a lady to remind her that her eye test appointment is tomorrow at 2:30pm. But I accidentally told her that her eye test was today! The lady had to correct me, when I was the one who should have known better.

I often speak in a self-deprecating way at work because I make so many mistakes and get confused, but I realised that can be a form of self-criticism when taken to extremes. Of course I think it's okay to have a laugh and not take myself too seriously, but I don't want to constantly put myself down either.

 

Hi, Laudisco. We all make mistakes and then blame ourselves for not being perfect.
The fatigue probably caused the bloopers. They weren't important, so they're not worth criticizing yourself about.

Think more on all the things you do accomplish.

 

I had another blooper today at work but I didn't feel too bad about it. I've actually started feeling a bit better today, with less fatigue. So far so good!

 

Sounds good, Laudisco. You're conditioning yourself not to feel bad if you make a blooper.
My book publisher boss thinks he's a perfectionist, but I find errors he makes all the time.
It causes me more work, but I just do it and figure it beats being unemployed.

 

And if you can, when you make another blooper, just laugh about it.
Even if you just have to smile, if you're not alone.