Super spontaneous post, a short announcement in order to hold myself (more) accountable: I will try to perceive / talk to myself in a more positive light, and I guess we'll see how that works out and where I end up.

Everyone keeps saying that you shouldn't belittle oneself, but for some reason I never thought about why. My intuition tells me it's because there's a fine line between "reasonable self-criticism" and "the downwards spiral of self-hatred". But as long as I don't feel depressed, it's fine, right?

Here's a short series of statements. If they are true and/or logically follow from another, then they make a pretty good argument as to why I should work on my perception of myself:

1. Everyone is, to some extent, shaped by their environment. (This shouldn't be controversial)
2. Thus each individual person / friend / acquaintance has an impact on you. The extent might vary (family member / childhood friend vs brief acquaintance), but it should be there.
3. If they have an impact, the medium through which one is impacted can vary. It doesn't need to be an action or activity; just conversations or monologues also have an impact.
4. If all of this holds for speaking with friends, why shouldn't your own thoughts or self-talk have an impact? Imagine you were stranded on a deserted island. Would your character development be stopped? If the only conversations you had were with yourself, would the way you think about yourself really have no impact on how you develop?
5. Therefore, positive thoughts about myself should, in the long term, have a measurable effect on myself.

Obviously I don't disregarding any self-criticism in favor of "I'm great, actually". But, at least for the moment, I believe just shifting the perspective on some issues in a more neutral light could positively influence the development of oneself. Maybe even giving yourself a pat on the back at the end of the day for finishing task x, even if it's just a routine, or something mundane.