Critique Versus Criticism.

The difference between criticizing your efforts and critiquing your efforts is the difference between action and inaction, success and failure, motivation and loss of motivation.

The internal representation of “I am” is a powerful directive.

If you set out for a task and do not complete it and take it to mean “I am lazy” or “I am always procrastinating” then you are criticizing your effort. 

Which bears the sickly fruit-thought of “why bother?”

However, if you turn the inner dialogue and simply say “Interesting” to the event you’re referring to and then seek to ask the following three questions: 

1. What did I do well?

2. What didn’t work?

3. What can I do better next time?

You flip the switch from criticizing you to critiquing. 

You also illuminate the truth that you are good the way you are, you are not your behaviour and you are valuable.

Vaughan.