Being a natural perfectionist, I thought my intentions were to do everything the right way. Over time, I realized that this wasn’t the case, and instead I was trying to avoid mistakes, mess-ups, and failures. This avoidance was caused by a fear of criticism. Initially, it was a fear of external criticism but I soon realized what scares me most was self-criticism. I realized that what I was doing was no longer enjoyable, it was simply to avoid self-criticism and fill the void it brought into my life. This void was present because self-criticism causes nothing to ever feel good enough.
While thinking about this concept, interesting analogies came to …show more content…
We think we are taking actions to becoming happier; we are actually fighting to stay afloat. We need these accomplishments to feel less bad about ourselves. For a moment it takes the pressure off of us versus actually making us happy. It is less of a negative, which does not mean more of a positive.
I used to always believe self-criticism was a good motivational tool. I felt it kept me in check; I realized that’s all it did. I was in check and not really making any mistakes. Was I living though? Sure, I didn’t do anything wrong, but did that mean I was doing anything right? Many people believe, as I once did, that self-criticism is an important motivational tool. There is a difference between a healthy sense of self-acceptance, realizing there are areas we can grow in and mistakes we can learn from, and self-criticism, being harsh on ourselves for having flaws or making