Go Easy on Yourself, and ignore those who go hard on you.
I long ago stopped being hard on myself. I also learned to pay zero attention to those who go hard on me from the outside. ‘What do they know?’ I repeat, and move quickly on. People who think they know best know nothing. When they impose themselves and intervene they frequently short-circuit your high-precision processes, arresting and reversing any progress you are making. I learned by hard experience to seek and celebrate the little victories, even victories so small as to hardly count as victories at all, to those looking on from the outside. But what do they know? Taking time and space in this way is often the condition for problem-solving. Go direct and you may well hit a brick wall and crash into a thousand pieces. If I haven’t solved the problems that confront me I don’t go hard on myself. Instead, I pat myself on the back for surviving to fight another day.
