I think sometimes it's really easy to fall into the trap of expecting too much of yourself. Say you're trying to do a CBT exercise and it feels forced, difficult, so you eventually
not only give up
but also beat yourself up about not picking it up quickly enough. Bit of a vicious cycle mechanism.
It links to something I've been thinking about recently about just how much effort is required to challenge and change ourselves and our thought patterns and behaviours. It's a huge, huge challenge and we should try to place realistic, simple expectations on ourselves otherwise risk making ourselves feel even worse.
An easier way to think about this is simply to expect to fail. Expect to fail many times
before you learn how to do things the best way (and eventually you
will improve). Failure in itself is not inherently a problem, by the way (obviously there are exceptions). Failure simply means you tried. Worse than failure is not trying at all.
In fact failing faster and faster is even better!
Some more advice here:
Seven questions for when you are failing.
Why most people give up.
Hope someone gets some use out of this!
