You’re allowed to like who you are before anyone else signs off on it.

Approval gets treated as the first step, as though your own opinion of yourself were waiting on a signature from outside. Reversing that order is the actual work. Nobody is scheduled to deliver a verdict, and if one does arrive it will be based on a fraction of what you know about yourself, which makes it thin evidence in either direction.

Write down two things you genuinely like about how you handled yourself this month, before anyone else mentions them. It feels strange, which is fine. The point is finding out the assessment can start with you.