Thread: Self Deprecating Newbies

While I agree with the spirit of the OP, I also think it is a good thing to set the bar high. Being hard on yourself is one of the ways to achieve great things, in any walk of life. But all within reason of course.

There's nothing wrong with being disappointed, or failing, or screwing up. Everyone does it, and will continue to do it, until the day they die. What you need to develop is an additional mechanism that takes that disappointment, failure, or whatever, examines the causes of it dispassionately, maps out a plan to overcome it, and then implement it. All within the context of what you want to achieve.

That kind of approach takes a certain level of self-honesty, and it also takes a certain level of emotional (and, when using straights, perhaps physical) robustness. It also takes humility, patience, and determination.

I have no doubts that people who have achieved great things in life have also experienced great disappointments along the way. The thing that differentiates them from others is what they do with the disappointment - rather than let it control them, I would suggest they controlled it, and used it to learn how to do things better.

So I say set the bar high, always aim for the acme, but expect to be disappointed, and know how to deal with it. In the context of straights, that's where this forum and the more experienced members can play a part. Try to be constructive in your self-criticism: it is hard to help without specifics to go on. And never think you are the only one experiencing the particular difficulty you have atm - I can guarantee someone, somewhere, has had a similar, if not identical, issue at some time.

Auntie (Tough Love) Jimbo.