Daily Stoic Entry #61: Do I See and Assess Myself Accurately?

March 2nd 2022

Follow along with my personal daily stoic journal, unfiltered, unedited (except for some spelling mistakes).

Morning Reflection:

Probably not. I tend to be way too critical of myself and give myself too little credit. Either in my confidence about looks, dating, likeability, or professional skills, etc. I just can’t seem to stop putting the bar way too high. As well as not accepting compliments. And the continuous need to improve, even when you’re probably good as you are right now. That doesn’t take away the need to improve, but it needs to come from a healthy mindset rather than a scarcity mindset.

Evening Reflection:

Can we truly assess ourselves accurately? I doubt we will ever be able to be truly objective about ourselves. Nevertheless I think when we examine ourselves we get closer to the truth and any effort that gets us closer might be worth the effort regardless whether or not we can achieve true accuracy about ourselves. I hesitate to claim the following to be true, but I think that when we find some kind of meditative state and see the thoughts just as suggestions, you can sidestep overidentification with those thoughts and then you’re more likely to make accurate assessments of yourself and certain situations. Why? It’s because we’re not pushed and pulled by the initial thoughts.

Title prompts are taken from The Daily Stoic Journal by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.