When Your Kindness Flows Easily to Others but Not to Yourself - Tiny Buddha

"Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn't worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens. ~Louise L. Hay"

"In an instant, flashes of similar mistakes I'd made over the course of a long career in communications rushed in, piling onto the present moment and creating a familiar haze of self-loathing. Thoughts that began with 'If only' and ended with 'You know better' swirled through my mind, untethered from any sense of proportion."

"I could see how my need to protect my ego had overridden my integrity. The self-talk that followed was brutal, revealing how perfectionism and the desire to be correct matter more than being honest and fair in relationships."

A perfectionist struggles with an inner critic triggered by a minor typo in printed material, which spirals into days of self-loathing and retrospective analysis of past mistakes. This harsh self-judgment extends beyond work errors into personal relationships, where the need to be right overrides honesty and fairness. The author recognizes that years of self-criticism have not produced positive change, and that this default setting of harsh self-judgment colors all aspects of life. The pattern reveals how perfectionism and ego protection undermine integrity and create unnecessary suffering. Shifting from self-criticism to self-approval offers an alternative approach to handling mistakes and fostering genuine personal growth.

Read at Tiny Buddha