[PerfectElement]

Whenever I felt like that, I used a mental hack to make me feel better. I would sit down and start to think (or write) about all the things I am grateful for. Coming from a third world country, it was easy to see how good it was to be highly employable and live in a relatively safe society. This would instantly put me in a good mood and make me feel proud of my achievements.

Being grateful doesn't mean you should accept your lot in life and stop striving for improvements. It will just help you make peace with where you are at right now, so you can focus on your next steps without the negative pressure.

Today I run my own business and make more money than I ever expected, and I still use this method whenever I'm having a bad day.

[noir_lord]

I do something very similar, I also take pride in my work, not the generic "of course I take pride in my work" but the pride you get from knowing you did the best that you could do given the constraints (whatever they may be) you had.

That way I'm comparing what I did against what was reasonably doable.

Sure there are things I'd love to do but management constraints/budget or temporal constraints simply ruled them out, if I explained that to (former bosses, current boss is a diamond) management clearly then who cares, I did my job.

I can live with that for an above average salary and a 40 hour work week.