Bit of wisdom

At my last piano lesson, I played "Serenade of the Doll" from Debussy's Children's Corner. My teacher asked, as he usually does after I've played something through, how I thought it had gone. I said, "It wasn't too terrible." We both laughed, and then he told me about a conversation overheard on the Metro:

Tourist: Everyone told us people in DC are so mean, but we haven't found that to be true at all! Everyone we've met has been really nice!

DC Native: In DC, we're only mean to ourselves.

"So don't be mean to yourself! I thought it was pretty good."

It's something of a conundrum: On the one hand, you have to be self-critical or you'd never improve. On the other, if you get into the habit of telling yourself how bad you are, this starts permeating your self-image and eroding confidence in what you're doing.

I guess as with everything, there's a happy medium somewhere in there.