Am I being a diva right now? Am I a terrible parent? Am I bad at my job?
Probably not.
Self-awareness is tough. If you even have the inkling that you might be deficient in a particular category, then you’re already more self-aware about that category than about 90% of your fellow humans. Which means, statistically, you’re ranked well above average in the actual manifestation of that quality.
Bad parents don’t generally wonder if they’re bad parents. They just assume, without ever thinking about it, that they’re great ones. They lack the self-awareness to even question their behavior, so it doesn’t improve.
And this pattern generally holds. If you’re worried whether or not you’ve got some bad quality, then you also care whether or not you do. So you’re likely taking at least some steps to be better – and that’s more than most.
So don’t sweat that stuff. You can seek to improve without worrying that you’re currently bad. Even being aware of a scale likely puts you in the top half of it.
The Opportunity Machine 