Create Balance

There is an important difference between beating yourself up and being productively honest about your shortcomings. Striking a balance would enable you to make productive use of constructive criticism, while staying away from its destructive counterpart.

Recognize the Context

If a girls’ night out made you binge drink and go on a self-criticism spree, when you woke up with a hangover the next morning, it’s important that you recognize the context instead of putting the blame only on yourself.

What were the factors that lead you to do it? Was there peer pressure? Were you having too much fun? Was there a ‘who can drink the most’ competition? Once you recognize what your triggers are, you would empower yourself, by gaining knowledge of what you need to work on, or even avoid.

Utilizing Your Triggers

Recognizing the context of your failures can culminate in using them as leverage. You now know the pattern that these situations make you fall into. Awareness of the power of these contextual factors, like peer pressure, will help you make better decisions next time.

Believing that the situation has no effect on you catches you blindsided.

Once you are aware of these situations, either avoid those that end in negative behavior, or change something about these situations to ensure you don’t behave in the same manner.