People are wonderful. And they are hard work.*
(Brené Brown)

Everything changes once you see how the universe is designed for abundance and not for scarcity. It to only changes the condition of your life but it changes you.**
(Erwin McManus)

It is easier to judge another person, but the most important person we will ever judge is ourself, as Robert McKee here suggests for the writer:

Learning to discriminate between bad and good in other people’s writing is not difficult. However, to see it in your own calls for guts and judgement. It requires an intrinsic disgust with banality and an eye for the vital versus the lifeless.^

I value McKee’s words for writers and writing because they often provide a metaphor for the most important story all, being the one we live each day, but today he makes the point for me:

Tough-mindedness not only inspires truthful writing but a truthful life as well. The more you spot these faults in your own pages and trash them with the repugnance they deserve, the more you avoid them in life.^

He uses some strong words – disgust, trash, repugnance – to which I want to add the tension-words of kindness and generosity. Because we live in a universe of abundance rather than one of scarcity.

Yes, let us judge ourselves honestly, but also kindly, generously and wisely.

After all, we need there to be grace in our stories, too.

*From Brené Brown’s Braving the Wilderness;
**From Erwin McManus’ The Last Arrow;
^From Robert McKee’s newsletter: Why a Writer Needs Ruthless Judgement.