For many of us, it is easier to notice things we screw up rather than acknowledging all the things we do right. And you know what? “Where attention goes, energy flows.”

Ignoring your achievements and giving energy to your mistakes is bad for anything or anyone.  Period. It’s a form of self-sabotage. I do it too.

Life is imperfect and so are we. Just accept it.

We can be our own worst enemies and instead we need to silence our inner critic. We talk a lot about being kinder to others but remember to be kind to yourself first.

I personally beat myself up all the time over mistakes I make, criticism I receive or things I didn’t get to. When I receive feedback I only hear the negative. If you ask my mentor and former boss Wendy, she will probably tell you it’s how I get in my own way the most.

So here is your daily reminder that being kind to yourself and honoring where you are and all that you do is so important. Especially at times when all you can see is what you self-allegedly did wrong. No one is perfect – your good is good enough.

What I’ve started to do is to silence my inner critic is to first become aware of it. Mindfulness is simply your ability to recognize your thoughts before you engage with them.

When you recognize that you are not your thoughts—you are simply the observer of your thoughts—you begin to change the way you think. You begin to consciously choose which thoughts you want to give your attention to.

The thoughts you give attention to create the emotions that you feel.

I also started to write down a list of the things I did accomplish each week. This makes me feel better about the things I didn’t get to. I also focus on the most important task I have and work on it until it’s done.

For those things I didn’t finish, I put them on another list as priority items. I make sure to focus on the big “wins” that I did have and create a plan for dealing with the outstanding projects I have so that they don’t stress me out too much.

How do you deal with your inner critic?