12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 

#⭐ Rule 4: Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.

• But this chapter is so much more than that adage; it teaches you to bargain with yourself, to work with yourself kindly.

“Maybe you don't trust yourself. ... Who wants to work for a tyrant like [you]? Not you. That's why you don't do what you want yourself to do. You're a bad employee—but a worse boss. Maybe you need to say to yourself, 'I know we haven't gotten along very well in the past. I'm sorry about that. I'm trying to improve. … Is there something I could offer in return for your cooperation? Maybe if you did the dishes, we could go for coffee.’”

“Five hundred small decisions, five hundred tiny actions, compose your day, today, and every day. Could you aim one or two of these at a better result? Better, in your own private opinion, by your own individual standards?”

“Aim lower. Search until you find something that bothers you, that you could fix, that you would fix, and then fix it. That might be enough for the day.