Some days are just difficult, and when a day is difficult many of us end up beating ourselves up for all the things that just didn't go right. It's so easy to slip into the blame mentality. 'I could have done this better,' or 'that never should have happened. What was I thinking?' For some, the internal dialogue is brutal. 'I'm so stupid. I never should have done that.' Over time, this habit of beating ourselves up for everything we've done 'wrong' just winds up making us miserable. But that doesn't mean we have to stay miserable. Just like you can train your body into a new habit in a few short weeks, you can also train your mind. Here are a couple of tips, and if you follow this link you'll find sixteen more.
Remember that you're human, and humans make mistakes. Mistakes are how we learn. So give yourself grace. A good exercise is to look at the situation as if your best friend had done the exact thing you're beating yourself up about. Would you tell your friend the same things you're telling yourself? If not, you're probably being overly critical of yourself.
Change your perspective of the situation. When you make a mistake or do something that you just can't help beating yourself up over, consider looking at the situation from a different angle. What did you learn from the situation? Was there anything good that came out of the mistake or that could come out of it? Changing the perspective enables you to look at the situation from a more objective viewpoint. You focus on the growth instead of the perceived 'failure.'
Here are some more great tips for quieting the overly critical inner voice. Just remember, you are human and you're here to learn. Sometimes that learning looks messy, but that's okay! The key is to keep learning and moving forward.
