What embarrasses you says a lot about what you value. Sometimes it says what you need to stop valuing.

Embarrassment is a tripwire, and it only goes off where a standard is buried. Some of those standards are genuinely yours, like caring about being honest or doing a job properly. Others were installed by a crowd whose opinion you would not choose, and those still make you flinch about your shoes or your family’s car.

Next time you cringe, stop long enough to ask whose rule just got broken. If you cannot name anybody whose judgment you respect behind it, you have found a rule you can start putting down. That takes a while, and it starts with noticing.