Remember, when you feel glum, it is nothing more than that there was something you wanted to be or to have or to seem, and it didn't come out the way you wanted and so you saw disappointment and thought you were the disappointment. You thought not meeting a dream of yours was fatal for your dream and that that fatality proved your unworthiness. It is not the disappointment that makes you unhappy. It is the sense of unworthiness that you glean from it. You play tricks on yourself.

You compare yourself too much. You compare yourself with others and you compare yourself with an image of yourself that you don't live up to. But who said you had to live up to it? Who said you had to be this way and not that? Who said that popularity from the world or from yourself was the key to your happiness?

Each of you trudges along as best he can. Be kind to your own self, and then you can be kind to others. You are a hard taskmaster. And I am a loving One. But that is because I see Truth and you see manufactured illusion. If you saw Truth, you would take delight in yourself. You would dance for joy for your Humanness that so disappoints you now. You would see that your Human life is only a scribble on the universe, and it doesn't all matter that much. You attach too much importance to it.

You are always seeking improvements. At this rate, you will never be satisfied. You are forever sighing, "Oh, what I could have been. Oh, what I could be! Oh, what I will never be. Oh, what I will never achieve." You defeat yourself. You undercut yourself. Never mind about achieving.

Mind about being. Consider that your task is to be happy with yourself. Not so mindful, but happy. You are your own twin, the critic of you and the child of you — My child of you. Which shall it be? In your search for so-called perfection, who is winning, do you think?

That pompous judger of you is winning. The one who says, "Not good enough. You have to do better. You came this far yesterday, and now you have to come further, or you're not so good."

But the child of you skips along, has no disappointment, savors what comes. The child of you embraces while the critic twin of you lashes out.

Who would you rather be? The smug judge that you give credence to or the happy child that you berate?

Can't you leave yourself alone a little bit? So, you are not the perfect creature you had intended. So, you are a disappointment to yourself. So you fall short of your ideas of what you should be. Then pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and keep going forward. There is nothing you have to attain. There is nothing you have to do but keep going.

Consider your task today is to defeat the critic part of you. When it starts to hold sway, stay its hand. Tell it to go away and let you move on. The critic side of you makes you think he wants to improve you, but he really wants to keep you down. He really wants to defeat you and say, "I told you so." But you must shrug off the critic side of you and let the bright side of you blossom.

Keep growing toward the sun. Let nothing hold you back. There is nothing you have to achieve in growing toward the sun. Get your feet free from the deluges of the past. Kick your critic away, and rise to Me.

Have no image of yourself at all. No image to live up to. No disappointments to forbear. Your false images are your idols. Your predeterminations batter you. Let yourself alone. Let Me take care of you. Let Me tell you what you have to do and be. Let Me put you together instead of your taking yourself apart.