Do you file yourself into a compartment and give yourself a report card before you go to bed at night? No longer file a report on yourself. You are not to be an appraiser of yourself.
It’s bad enough when the world sizes you up and finds you wanting. You are not meant to spy on yourself and tell tales on yourself.
You may be indiscernible to the world. In the world, you may need a make-over. In the world, you may be sized up right and left. To yourself, be a friend who likes you. Why assess yourself as if you were an auditor who must latch onto something?
It is your nature to grow. You will grow and thrive better without self-criticism. You do not need to caution yourself. What you need is to love yourself as if you were a growing flower in an oasis even maybe in a desert.
What happens too often is you put yourself in a prison cell and order yourself to grow to perfection. You find fault and whip yourself. You try to beat fault out of you.
Honor yourself instead. Find the good you did today and never mind anymore whatever chagrin you may feel because you find yourself imperfect. I tell you that you thrive every day. You make it every day. Whatever labor or standard you give yourself, no matter how high you lift the rope you give to yourself to jump over, no matter how many times you miss and trip and fall, you make it to the end. Let bedtime not be a time of self-recrimination. This is a time for approval. Put that idea in your pipe, and smoke it.
Fall asleep with kindly words you give to yourself. Is this a novel idea, the idea of befriending yourself and not beating yourself up?
Will you try it?
You don’t need a hair-shirt. You don’t need to remind yourself of fault. Remind yourself of the good you did today. Remind yourself of all the energy you gave to today. Remind yourself that you are a Being of Joy. This is your natural state. No longer track your failings. Take yourself with a grain of salt and find that for which you can pat yourself on your back.
I swear to you that you accomplished good today. You won your life today. You matriculated through life today. You were not held back. You made it!
You woke up this morning. You got out of bed. You took a shower and brushed your teeth. You grabbed a bite. You made it out the door. You started your car and drove to work. Or you walked to work. Or you worked in your house, or you caught your bus on time. You greeted the bus driver. You arrived at work. You said hello to everyone in passing. You got to work. You got some work done. You went to lunch. You smiled at some people. You made conversation, or perhaps you were silent. Nothing wrong with that.
This is the conclusion you must come to. You put in a good day. You aren’t so shabby as you sometimes think you are. You may have gotten through some storms. Well, you got through them. Now you reach home. Welcome yourself. And welcome those who greet you. Consider you had a day well-done.
Perhaps you wanted to be made royalty today, and, okay, it didn’t happen, so what? You didn’t win the lottery today, so what? What was so serious that it had to happen today, and if it didn’t, why carry the idea that you failed, or worse yet, that I failed you?
This is a great day you had today. You made it! Congratulate yourself.
You will wake up tomorrow with greater energy. Another great day is coming around the corner. Your day today is not meant to be a proving ground. It is simply a place for you to live in without qualms. Will you do this for Me?