The real proof you’ve grown is what you do the next time you’re in the same situation that made you hurt someone.

Regret is cheap, and feeling bad is not the same as being different. The honest measurement only arrives when the conditions repeat: same pressure, same tiredness, same chance to take the easy exit. What you do the second time is the only evidence that holds up, to other people and to you.

Think about the situation where you were not your best, and work out what specifically made it easy to behave that way. Decide now what you will do when it comes round again. Then wait for it, because it will.