> Affirmations are a powerful and proven tool to calm your inner critic and increase self-compassion. Instead, I recommend reading (or listening to) Kid Confid

> Affirmations are a powerful and proven tool to calm your inner critic and increase self-compassion. Instead, I recommend reading (or listening to) Kid Confidence by Eileen Kennedy-Moore. It's applicable to adults and to ones own self. Here is a paraphrased excerpt: --- Address your fundamental needs for connection, competence, and choice. When these needs are met, you'll be less preoccupied with evaluating yourself and questioning your worth. Connection: Build meaningful relationships with family and friends. This is how you'll feel known, accepted, and valued by others. Also, spending time with people you care about will give you more interesting things to think about than your own self-worth. Competence: Gain real skills so you can do things that matter to you. To feel competent you have to have genuine competence. Learn how to learn, so you can grown your own competence and unblock yourself when you are stuck. Choice: Figure out what matters to you so you can make decisions that are in line with your values. Embrace opportunities to make your own meaningful choices. --- Based on personal experience, I believe this is the right framework for real self-improvement. Your inner critic is there for a reason. Respect it and become a person it can be proud of. Affirmations and other popular self-help techniques are mostly bullshit. Also, it's interesting to note that if you inverse the above advice, you basically have the classical framework for running a cult.