Feeling guilty about guilt

 Here’s a little game that smart people I know often play:

Step 1: Have a great idea/vision/plan.
Step 2: Execute 80% of said idea/vision/plan really well. Reality sends 20% of the thing awry, which is to be expected.
Step 3: Despite the 80% well-executed idea/vision/plan being a reality, now focus on the ill-fated 20% and start to feel guilty about yourself.

Step three sounds like this “Oh I’m such an idiot, I wasted too much time in the beginning deciding whether to use Acme or Generico, I could have gotten this done in time if I hadn’t procrastinated”... or something to that effect.

Step 4: Notice you’re feeling guilty about something relatively inconsequential (it was only 20%, after all), and then feel guilty about feeling guilty.

Step four sounds like this “What am I saying to myself!? I did the best I could with what I had at the time. God I’m such an idiot I’m always way too hard on myself. I hold myself to impossible standards”...

Step 5: Notice you’re feeling guilty about feeling guilty and then feel guilty about that. I’m sure you can work out how that sounds.

It continues, ad nauseum.

Look, it’s really hard to stop feeling guilty about things you could have done better. But you can stop the whole guilt train that comes afterwards.

Be kind to yourself.