We tell ourselves stories to justify our actions, soften our mistakes, and protect our self-image. While this is natural, avoiding self-honesty can keep us stuck in patterns of regret, low self-esteem, and unfulfilled goals. True growth comes from confronting ourselves without crushing ourselves. In this article, we explore why we deceive ourselves, how it affects us, and how to cultivate self-awareness with compassion.

To all of you who are hard on yourselves.

You are constantly chiding yourself for decisions you've made, time you've wasted, and for not being good enough. You see all the ways you should have, could have, done better.

This constant questioning of yourself is exhausting

If we constantly depend on outcomes or people's responses to feel good about ourselves, this feeling will likely be unstable and fleeting; hard-earned yet quickly lost.