I can only speak from experience. Everything I tell you, I tell myself. You know the biggest problem with being too hard on yourself? You drive other people away. No one can relate to you – nor would they want to. It can be exhausting to hang around a perfectionist. It can feel self-defeating to constantly live in a state of self-improvement. When you never give yourself a break, people around you feel that you won’t ever give them a break either, and that makes being your friend far too stressful.
The good news is, you can learn to be easier on yourself simply by choosing to! Once you are conscious of the fact, and once you are aware that your current actions are not serving you, then you can make the choice to change your behavior. It all starts with loving yourself. And to do this you must choose to do this. No one else can convince you that you are “good enough” but yourself. If you are waiting for someone else’s approval before you can accept yourself, than you are waiting for false flattery that gives you nothing more than a co-dependency. Good luck with that.
But if you are genuinely convinced you need to start showing yourself more respect, congratulations. Once you do, the rest of the world finally will too. Self-acceptance is the most attractive thing you can wear, and it never goes out of style. So do yourself a favor and choose to get up today and see your strengths rather than your faults; express your gratitude rather than your embarrassment. Choose to be kind to yourself no matter what. That is your homework.