We all try to do our best, at least most of the time. And when we don't succeed, often we are our own harshest critics.
But if you never give yourself a break, even doing your best is never going to be good enough.
Don't get me wrong; demanding excellence of yourself and your performance at work are admirable goals. But we all mess up occasionally, despite the best of intentions. How you respond to failure is what determines whether you can figure out what happened and move on or put yourself in a negative downward spiral.
Six helpful questions from Ruth and Gary Namie's "The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job," can help you assess how you handle missteps at work.
• When you make an error or an oversight at work, do you criticize yourself harshly?
• Before important meetings, job interviews or work assignments, are your thoughts negative — do you focus on all that might go wrong?
• When you are running late, do you bombard yourself with harsh criticism, even before anyone else notices you are late?
• Do you worry you will be found out and others will discover you are not really able to do what is expected of you?