I really like the idea of the "compassionate critic," which I thought of based on your response. Above all, I'm striving to align my thoughts with the truth, and to be overly critical without compassion could also deviate from that. You gave an example of "Pathological Kindness," and the opposite end of that would be hyper critical and state something like, "you're a failure and an idiot." Both of these examples are not true (because I AM responsible for my failures, but I'm not an idiot), but your example of a "Self-Compassionate" response to the failure is, not only kinder, but it's the only example that aligns with the truth (failure IS a part of the process, and I CAN improve next time). I often lean towards the harshly critical, but your response above has revealed to me that by doing so, I'm not actually being truthful, which can only bring negative results in the long-run.
I really like the idea of the "compassionate critic," which I thought of based on your response. Above all, I'm striving to align my thoughts with the truth, and to be overly critical without compassion could also deviate from that. You gave an example of "Pathological Kindness," and the opposite end of that would be hyper critical and state something like, "you're a failure and an idiot." Both of these examples are not true (because I AM responsible for my failures, but I'm not an idiot), but your example of a "Self-Compassionate" response to the failure is, not only kinder, but it's the only example that aligns with the truth (failure IS a part of the process, and I CAN improve next time). I often lean towards the harshly critical, but your response above has revealed to me that by doing so, I'm not actually being truthful, which can only bring negative results in the long-run.