The hardest person to be honest with is the one in your mirror. Start there.

Self-deception is unusually effective because it faces no opposition. Everyone else has to be convinced; you only have to stop asking, and the story you tell yourself never gets checked in the ordinary way. What makes it hard to spot is that it feels exactly like ordinary thinking.

Pick one area where you suspect your account is generous and write down the plain facts with no interpretation. Read them back a day later and see whether the story still fits what is on the page.