Be honest

Thursday, February 26

Can you be honest with yourself without shaming yourself?

Sometimes you aren’t good enough. The performance wasn’t what it could have been. Attitude wasn’t what it should have been. Effort wasn’t where it needed to be.

In those moments, self-talk like “I’m good enough” isn’t actually helpful. Yes, you as a human are good enough. But you as the leader, as the performer, were not good enough. And that’s okay. Perfect isn’t the expectation.

But can you talk to yourself in a way, in those moments, where you can be honest with what didn’t go well, while still encouraging yourself to keep going, to try again, to be better the next time? This is self-leadership.

It does us no good to be delusional and overlook effort or performance that didn’t meet our standard. But it also does us no good to shame ourselves.

Call yourself up. Be honest about what went wrong, about what you could’ve done differently, about where you could have been better. Then remind yourself that you are the kind of person who figures it out, who keeps going, who makes progress.

Lead yourself well.
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Keep chopping wood. 🪵🪓

-Kevin