Hi everyone you're listening to savvy psychologist. I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and every week

I'll help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.

And now, on to the show. Are you harder on yourself than 40 grit

sandpaper? Do you feel like you're falling short no matter how high you've

climbed? Are you tough as nails on yourself? no matter how high you've climbed.

Are you tough as nails on yourself,

but soft as mashed potatoes with others?

Welcome to the esteemed yet insecure club

of the highly self-critical. Now being hard on yourself is

double-edged. Highly self-critical individuals are often successful achievers, but

the road to those achievements isn't a smooth ride.

Instead, it's often riddled with potholes of stress, insecurity, and self-doubt.

Now, your self-criticism may be overt, such as calling yourself names like idiot or

loser when you don't meet your own standards, or disparaging your accomplishments to those who try to congratulate

you. But self-criticism may be covert too, and it may leak out in sneaky ways like an eating disorder, social anxiety, or depression.

Therefore, this week we'll talk about five signs, it may be time to trade in your criticism for some kindness.

Sign number one, you're never content. Even if we've run out of room on our trophy shelf, made the Dean's list, or frame the

first dollar from our newly launched business, we just don't feel satisfied.

Or perhaps we do, but it's either fleeting or way down by qualifications, like, yeah, I got the promotion, but I don't think the decision was unanimous.

Or meaning the Dalai Lama was amazing, but I got starstruck and

babbled like an idiot. When we're highly self-critical we may feel like a failure

even as others congratulate us on a job well done. We may feel like a loser even when our life is

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