Best Friend Test

Sometimes it can be hard to take a look at yourself and think about where you are in life, the choices you make and how it all measures up compared to the standards and expectations you have for yourself.  It can become very easy for people to get caught in one of the extremes... 

On one extreme is a defensiveness of "I am great and never make a mistake so don't criticize me" and on the other extreme is a victim mindset of "nothing I ever do, say, think, or believe is good enough."

Quite honestly, we are living life in the gray.  Very rarely in life are things 100% perfect and good and, fortunately, usually things are not 100% horrible either.  But living life in the gray can be uncomfortable and uneasy because we tend to judge ourselves harshly and unfairly.  

So I'd like to encourage you to "best friend test it."  What I mean by that is, would you say the same things to your best friend that you are saying to yourself?  Chances are pretty high that you wouldn't say the same things outloud to your best friend that you are saying silently to yourself.  So please pause, check yourself, and realize that you are not all good or all bad, but who you are and what you do matters so treat yourself and others around you with kindness because we are all still a work in progress!