Sometimes, the most insidious thing someone can tell you to make you feel better is the age-old phrase, “but you’re perfect!” While research suggests this may ease emotional pain temporarily, it might actually be holding you back from growth and, consequently, satisfaction.
In this episode of Office Hours, I explore why we avoid uncomfortable truths when feeling down, and why the better path towards fulfillment is honest self-acceptance—embracing your imperfections, and taking on the challenge to improve.
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Referenced:
• The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness
• The Pursuit of Happiness with Arthur Brooks
• I'm OK--You're OK: The Pioneering and Bestselling Self-Help Guide
• Taking time seriously. A theory of socioemotional selectivity
• Comparative perceptions of driver ability--a confirmation and expansion
• The Illusion of Moral Superiority
• Age and the better‐than‐average effect
• Depressive realism: evidence from false interpersonal perception
• Positive illusions about the self: Short-term benefits and long-term costs
• From Me to You: Self-Compassion Predicts Acceptance of Own and Others' Imperfections
• Blaming others: Individual differences in self-projection
• Learned Helplessness: A Theory for the Age of Personal Control
• How to Win Friends and Influence People


