Why is it so hard for us to forgive ourselves as creators, but recognize the progress in others so easily? We know it's a problem, but have you ever really thought about why is this even a thing?
I feel like at some point its really healthy to kinda shelve some of our mistakes and blunders as a creator and treat ourselves better. I think with the holiday coming up, one seemingly unrelated interesting thing I read in a psychology book that inadvertently reminded me of artist today was about the concept of self-care and self-compassion being a distructive thought (particularly the self-).
Philisophy (skip to the tldr; for art aspect)
The idea is basically that adding self- to an action means the word doesn't inherently apply to ourselves. We have to add extra effort to ensure that we are applying the standard to ourselves.
For example... "Self-compassion" vs "compassion"
Lets say, compassion is something like "having empathy". And the self prefix implies "oh yeah do it for yourself too". Having both words imply compassion really means "having empanthy for other people", but not necessarily for ourselves. This probably sounds like a very mature, responsible, and intellegent understanding. However, to prevent "burnout" we have to remember the "self-". So now we have to apply that empathy 2 times. Support others and "If there's time left" apply empathy to ourself.
Consider how this effects our expectations. We are are obeying a standard that compassion is good. Because it's not inherently benefiting ourselves as part of the shared experience unless done 2 times being good takes a lot of effort before it offers "value" in our own lives. Eventually we start to think "I'm good to others, why aren't others good to me?" Then ultimately, we become judgemental of people recieving support that we deny ourselves.
The alternate idea is compassion (that we offer), does not need self- because the word should not apply to others any differently than it does to ourselves. We should not be an island, but an equally important but unique asset to the whole. We can't really do that if we treat ourselves as being different.
Tldr;
So yeah.... this is all talk and theory and I'm no psychologist. So here's something practical to try thats been working for me in art (and other things)
Let's say you want to draw something for fun but you also need to draw something else boring. Odds are you just like drawing stuff. The tempting thing is to draw the fun thing as a reward for drawing the boring thing because you "NEED" to draw the boring thing. Chances are, by the time you draw the boring thing good enough, you'll be to "burned out". Odds are you're still not gonna be all that happy with the boring thing, but you're gonna justify for that with "Yeah, but you gotta do the boring thing and make sacrafices". Why? You'll probably compare yourself to another artist, who is good at drawing those "boring things" (after like 10+ more years of experience, practice and training).
So flip the script. You have 2 hours each day to draw. Give yourself the first 10-15 minutes to draw something fun "As a warmup". Fanart, experimental, oc etc... then spend the next 1 hour and 45 minutes drawing the boring stuff.
This is just something to try. Not for you? Keep exploring new ideas. Just a thought for the upcoming season.