I live in a world where people have the capacity to make more informed decisions as time moves forward and they gather more information about both the world and

I live in a world where people have the capacity to make more informed decisions as time moves forward and they gather more information about both the world and their own self. That is, people know themselves better at a later point in time than they did before (but it is entirely possible these reverse) and they have a different set of options because the overall state of the world tends to vary with time. If you make a goal at time t1 and decide at t2 that that goal was a hasty and thoughtless goal, then I think the person you are at t2 should be the person you evaluate yourself as, rather than clinging to statements you might have uttered in the past. Black and white thinking of "success / failure" is a good way to make sure everything in your life goes exactly as planned, while wearing blinders. You need a combination of both in order to really be successful. Being mean to yourself doesn't necessarily lead to success. If you've only got a mile left in the marathon and you've already ran 25, yes, that extra mile is kind of important, but also, no, it really isn't.