Psychology Today | 18.10.2026 20:44
For decades, I lived by an unwritten rule: Keep your head down, push through, and do not feel sorry for yourself. I treated self-compassion as a risky luxury—a soft indulgence that might rob me of determination, invite self-pity, and undermine my drive. I bought into the zeitgeist that being hard on yourself was how you kept yourself accountable and succeeded in life.
