{"id":12347,"date":"2023-06-06T09:09:48","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T00:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/?p=12347"},"modified":"2026-02-05T12:27:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T03:27:49","slug":"are-you-being-hard-on-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/are-you-being-hard-on-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Being Hard On Yourself?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Just for fun – the photo is with my friend, Sam, about 5 years ago on the stepping stones at a lovely village in Yorkshire where we used to go on family holidays as children.)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The other day, Junko (not her real name) told me on a call that she\u2019d recently been quite depressed. Even though she recognized that she\u2019d made progress in her work, she was scared of taking on anything more challenging and making a mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve known Junko for a while, and I gently pointed out that this was a pattern in her life. She makes some improvements and feels good for a little while, and then starts to worry that she\u2019s not good enough and feels bad again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you experienced something similar?<\/span><\/p>\n

I certainly have. It\u2019s normal. And it’s okay.<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s because, as Junko started to realize, even when she slips back a bit, her overall direction is upward.<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, it\u2019s growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you look at it that way, you can be kinder to yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what if you have a voice in your head giving you a hard time and telling you you\u2019re not good enough?<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s normal too. And it was the same for Junko.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I suggested giving her \u201cyou\u2019re not good enough\u201d voice a name.<\/span><\/p>\n

She decided on \u201cSemeko-chan\u201d (with \u201cseme\u201d meaning \u201cblame\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

I pointed out that Semeko-chan doesn\u2019t have bad intentions. She wants to protect Junko.<\/span><\/p>\n

If Junko is doing more challenging work, it\u2019s natural to be out of her comfort zone. And that means Semeko-chan wants to stop Junko and keep her safe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then Junko realized how much she\u2019d actually learned from past mistakes.<\/span><\/p>\n

So now, when Junko hears Semeko-chan\u2019s voice, she can say, \u201cOh, hello, Semeko-chan. Thank you for your concern. Actually, I\u2019m okay. If I make a mistake in my work, that\u2019s something I can learn from.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

How about you?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Just for fun – the photo is with my friend, Sam, about 5 years ago on the stepping stones at a lovely village in Yorkshire where we used to go on family holidays as children.) The other day, Junko (not her real name) told me on a call that she\u2019d recently been quite depressed. Even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,55,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-communication","category-personal-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12347"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18205,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12347\/revisions\/18205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}