Today, I felt upset with myself because of what I did yesterday. Almost every time I thought about it, I scolded myself. I wasn’t happy at all, but I worked more than usual. I can’t say it was all productive work, but just keeping the streak going is helpful in itself.

A question that comes up philosophically is the paradox of self-criticism and productivity.

It begs the question of whether self-criticism is a necessary force towards improvement, or it actually hinders true improvement.

One thing is recognizing that being upset with yesterday helped me work harder today as an example of how dissatisfaction or guilt can serve as a motivation. On the other hand, if self-criticism dominates my thoughts, it can become an unnecessary burden, making it harder to move forward freely.

This connects to existentialism and self-worth—do we measure ourselves by our past, or do we define ourselves anew with each action? Can productivity be meaningful if it stems from guilt rather than purpose?

It’s an interesting tension between acceptance and discipline. how do we balance learning from mistakes without letting them overshadow our present?