A recent client told me she was feeling badly that she was able to get rid of a lot of clutter when we worked together, but couldn't do any clutter busting on her own. She felt something was wrong with her.
I told her she wrong in her assumption. I reminded her of seven instances of clutter bustings she had done by herself. She had shared these stories with me at different times during our sessions together. I hadn't even asked her to do those clutter busts as homework. She did them on her own.
I told her that her false criticism was like a whip to get her to do more. Like she was whipping a horse to make it run faster. I said the whipping was clutter. It took away her experience of how well she was actually doing. It only served to slow her down.
When she realized what she had done, my client started laughing. The heaviness she'd been feeling was gone.