Long Day

Today was a hard day at work.  I spent hours trying to figure out how to best address a complex and sticky issue that has come up in several of my cases, but it's a confusing analysis with lots of moving parts, a tight timeline, and few definitive answers.  I ended up bothering my various bosses (I have five, but I only bothered two of them... so that's... good?)  many many many times trying to figure things out, and I felt like a pest and also like I should have been able to slog through this issue on my own.  I was a little embarrassed and very very frustrated by the whole process, and I think that showed.

I was beating myself up about it until my boss told me not to be so hard on myself.  And I realized that I was being hard on myself.  I've gotten this same feedback a lot recently, that I don't give myself enough credit, that I judge myself too harshly, that I set unrealistic standards for myself.  And generally, I brush off that feedback, because it's important to me to do well and because I thought that I was setting reasonable standards for myself.  But perhaps I'm not.  So perhaps I am being a little hard on myself.  Perhaps it's okay that I don't have all the answers.  Perhaps it's okay if I need help sometimes.