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.

We'll start with a message from this week's sponsor, Slate. 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, 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 a 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 deans 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 weighed 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 objectively going well.

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