 I think it's important to recognize here that there's action tied to it. So part of it is a recognition that failure is a part of the process. Not every goal is attainable in your first try. In fact, if it was, it's probably not a good goal for you. You probably wanna stretch yourself a little bit further. So I think a lot of times this perfectionism comes up. I feel like the inner critic and perfectionism is doing this dance where it's like, well, if I can't get it right the first time, I'm not gonna do it at all. Well, you're gonna fail. Well, then I'm not gonna do it because it's not gonna be perfect. Now, just telling yourself, hey, you did a great job, hey, better luck next time, but not taking that action the next time is not really your best friend, right? It's letting you off the hook. So I think, and we had Kristen on the show previously and self-compassion came up in the discussion. It came up in the X Factor Accelerator and Instoppable Sessions where this idea of self-compassion is often tied to just, okay, well I need to have my inner dialogue be a little bit more positive and a little bit more uplifting and I just gotta cheer myself up. Yeah, you can cheer yourself up while you're playing the PS5 and while you're throwing on another Netflix show, but that's not really self-compassion. That's just you allowing your inner dialogue to relax a bit after that inner critic came up. Self-compassion is an outward behavior. My grandma called that a pity party. Exactly. Self-compassion is not a pity party. It's not letting yourself off the hook and feeling pitiful about your previous result or that imperfection that you had. It's still an outward movement of action towards the goal. It's a recognition and a celebration that you took the step, you fell down, your inner critic was there, present, but you took the step and what can we do tomorrow to get you back to the gym, to get you running a little bit longer, to get you on stage a little bit longer, to get you feeling a little bit more discomfort at the next social gathering. Not to say that we need to change the goal entirely or we need to quit and I think that's where when we hear self-compassion it feels a little ooey-gooey, it feels a little woo-woo. If you don't tie it to an outward behavior of action in that direction the next time. This is a very common question that comes up, like if I become my own best friend won't I just slack? I would argue like maybe you need better friends if that's how your friends treat you and they like sit you down on the couch, turn on Netflix and feed you ice cream. But in reality, like think about the perfect friend you would want to have in your life. What would that person say to you as you struggle going to the gym? That person wouldn't take out the whip and go like, hey, you know what, move. That person might be like, hey, you know what? I know it's hard. This sucks. It sucked for me too. The first six months are hard. How about we start with 45 minutes and have an ice cream at the end or something like that. I say, yeah, 45 minutes I can do. The classic metaphor for that is that if you imagine you're in elementary school and you have two teachers and one teacher every time you fail or you fall short you get yelled at and puts you in the corner, shames you, makes you feel bad about yourself. Well, you have the other teacher who says, hey, I know this is hard. You failed just now. Can we try again tomorrow? What could we do differently? What do you think, right? Which teacher do you think you would have more success with? The compassionate one, not the one with a stick, right? And so many people I find, especially in the super productive hustle society, they feel like they need to go through their entire life with a stick behind their back so that they can achieve things. What kind of freaking life is that when you turn 120 years old and you didn't live a single day in your life without beating yourself up, yelling at yourself and using the stick? When self-compassion works just as well, if not better, without the stick. So let's do that. Let's act on that. It's also not the opposite of just quitting entirely. So that's the other side of the coin. And we see this with weight loss. We see this with trying to build new habits of like, oh, I was on a chain, I was 19 days in a row of eating good and then I had that cheeseburger or then I slept in or then I had that sip of alcohol. And it just wipes away the previous 18 days. And you're just like, I give up. Self-compassion comes in and says, okay, well, what can we do tomorrow to get back on track? Maybe it's have the salad for lunch. Maybe it's remove the alcohol from the house. Maybe it's put yourself on stage in a different way by speaking up in a Zoom meeting, right? So it's really important to recognize that when we're talking about self-compassion and we did a presentation on this in another group, it's not about just sitting there and having this internal rose-colored glasses, dialogue with yourself, you're so great, you're smart enough, you're sharp enough, you can do it, but it's then tied to, well, what are you doing now that you've felt that bit of compassion for yourself? What is that next step you're gonna take that's gonna get you moving back towards that goal? Understanding that over time, the more you're giving yourself these opportunities, the more that inner critic is gonna conserve its own energy and say, I don't need to speak up as much. I don't need to rush to judge. I don't need to shout at Michael, AJ, Johnny to stay safe. I know that Michael, AJ and Johnny are gonna be safe because the last time I spoke up and they did that thing, nothing happened. They had a great podcast, they had an awesome interview. They'd give a great speech on stage. So I can take today off. I don't need to be so loud today with my critique of who they are and why those goals aren't achievable. And that's the beauty of it. And when you recognize it can be developed like a muscle, well, there are some days I'm not gonna hit my PR in the gym, and there are other days I'm gonna surprise myself and I'm gonna push even further than I thought I could. So the development of it is so key. I feel like we need to address at this point because this is still going through the head of many a listener right now. Okay, I just need to flip the self-compassion switch and then everything is going to be easy. It's not a hack. Self-compassion is not a three second hack. Three, self-compassion is a tool that for the rest of your life you develop and it makes things a little bit easier because you have your best friend. You are your own best friend next to you as you go through the difficult process but it is more than anything, it is a tool that gives you advice. A really great question I learned from a friend to ask in difficult situations is given that it's difficult right now and given what's happening right now, what would be helpful? And just answering questions like these as if you were counseling your best friend will tell you what the next step is. It might be like, hey, get all the booze out of the house. It might be, hey, you know what? I've worked so hard for an entire month, I deserve a burger. The answer will come and it's going to come from the right place and not the inner critic that just wants you to stop.