You’ll spend more time with yourself than with anyone else in your life. Try to be decent company.

You are the one relationship with no exit. Every room, every drive, every bad night has you in it, so the way you talk to yourself is not a small detail. It is the background noise of an entire life. People who are savage with themselves do not get sharper from it; mostly they get tired.

Listen to how you narrate a mistake this week, out loud or in your head. Then say it again the way you would say it to a friend who did the same thing. Not softer than the truth, just without the extra contempt.