Hey, hey, hope you're doing well today. If not, that's all right. Maybe that's why you tune in for a little nudge in the right direction.

Sometimes, all it takes is a small experience to shift our perspective.

Did you ever see the short film by the soap company Dove as part of their campaign for real beauty, a police sketch artist

drew women based on their own descriptions of themselves and then again based on how others

saw them. The differences were really quite striking. Other people tend to see us in a much

kinder light than we see ourselves, and not just about appearance either.

We do tend to judge ourselves far more harshly than other people do in every aspect of life.

In fact, take a moment and think about how you would describe yourself.

What sort of stuff would come after the words, I am?

And then imagine somebody else doing the same.

Because I don't think their words would match yours.

Because the way you see yourself only exists in your head.

Everyone around you holds a slightly different version of

you in their mind, and yet we judge ourselves based on some imaginary standard. But where does that

standard even come from? Most struggles with self-worth stem from one tiny word, should. I should be happier.

I should be more successful. I should be better at this. The should sneak into our thoughts,

setting us up for failure, because should, it's always based on comparison.

But compared to what? Because many people don't feel low because life is bad. They feel low because

life isn't matching what they believe it should be. And it's this gap between expectation and

reality that tends to create distress.

Psychologist Karen Hornay called this the tyranny of the should.

She described how we hold ourselves to impossible standards,

...