Do you find yourself being harshly self-critical after you've made a mistake or failed to meet a personal goal? Familiar self-statements might be: "I can't seem to do anything right!" or "I'm just not talented enough." Maybe you falsely assume that you must be harsh with yourself in hopes of getting better results next time. What you might not know is that your self-criticism may be making it less likely that you'll succeed in the future.
"Nothing...can sharpen the historian's mind like defeat." - Eric Hobsbawm, reflecting the value of learning from defeats and how many intellectuals have enriched our understanding from their own failures.