Self-awareness is often the first step towards growth. But is there any drawback to being a person who’s keenly aware of his environment, his actions and the people around him?
You betcha.
It’s a tendency to kick himself in the ass for all the mistakes he’s seen himself make throughout the day.
You see, the more aware a person is, the more he’s able to notice when he flubs up.
That’s when his critical voice kicks in; ‘how could you have done that, I can’t believe you said that, you should have known better, yadda yadda yadda now no-one will ever love you and everyone in the universe will know you’re such a total loser!’
Something like that.
That’s when someone, say someone like me, has to yell (inside) ’stop!’ and remember that the only real use for my critical voice is to help me spot my mistakes so I can learn from them.
In other words, to make real the principle that ‘there are no failures, only learning experiences‘.
To say instead to my critical voice; ‘okay, I messed up. So how can I have done better? What can I do instead the next time?’
And you know what? More often then not, that critical voice will have some pretty smart suggestions. Just gotta remember to stop him from being such a crank.
P.S. The more aware a person is, the more he’s able to notice when he does a kick-ass job too 
September 9th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Any perfectionist should read this post!
September 9th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Great point, Alvin! And for those who tend toward the “I screwed up” side, noticing those successes is even more important. Thanks!