Gee, we can be tough on ourselves.
If other people treated us as poorly as we can treat ourselves, these people wouldn't be regarded as friends for too long.
So, this gift-giving season, one of the best gifts we can give ourselves is to stop giving ourselves such a hard time.
And it's easy.
All we have to do is keep self-talk or inner-voice under control and make sure that it's supportive at all times.
I can remember back in my professional athletics days how I allowed negative self-talk to bring about my undoing.
I had the times and handicap to win a race my trainer and I had selected months previously.
The stable supporters bet-up big with the bookies.
The post-race celebrations were planned: all I had to do was win.
Self-talk beat me.
And when I reflected on the reason for my failure to 'deliver the goods', I found that I was not Robinson Crusoe.
Uncontrolled self-talk can be a killer if it is given air-time.
Negative self-talk leads to self-induced and unhelpful anxiety.
An inner-voice discussion might go something like this.
'What I'm about to do is important.
I've never done this before.
It's a moment in time I won't have again.
I'm nervous.
The importance of the moment warrants it.
I hope I don't fail because there are plenty of reasons why it won't work etc.
, blah, blah, blah'.
A common approach often recommended is to self-talk how unimportant an upcoming event is: to tell ourselves that it doesn't really matter.
This is usually poor advice.
Diminishing an event's importance can affect future achievements.
It does matter.
Denigrating what you're doing undermines the very reason you're engaging in this activity in the first place.
Here's an alternative to try.
First of all, accept that it's okay to be nervous.
It's important, therefore, to acknowledge and welcome any feeling of anxiety.
It's presence is likely to be a sign you're onto, or engaging in, something that is important - if only in the here-and-now.
When we embrace this feeling, we can reach a point where we can work with it.
When used in this way, feelings of anxiety and fear becomes fuel that enables achievement.
Sometimes, controlling the stuff we allow ourselves to be exposed to can be as straightforward as flicking the TV's off-switch and using caller ID.
Another gift you can give yourself this Christmas is to cultivate self-talk so that it becomes the great enabler.