Definitely, it’s learning to separate the “art” from the “artist”, but within yourself.
In other words, your actions are not you, and vice versa. Perfection isn’t what you should strive for. You can’t travel at or above the speed of light, but you can travel at 93.8% the speed of light, and still be going pretty damn fast.
And I’ve always been the pretty introspective type. When I did something wrong, and was punished (i.e. my phone was taken away, I was grounded to my room, etc.), I had nothing left to explore but my own mind. Learning it’s limitations. What excited it, and what made it fearful and angsty. Introspection made me realize what my passions were. (Linguistics, other cultures, technology, microblogging, web design, etc.)
My mom gave me a journal too, and (once I had learned how to use it), it helped me further that introspection. Now, this blog/twitter-replacement-thingy has become my journal, except now (for privacy reasons) I can’t write down every single detail anymore. I think this will help with my memory in the future, but I’ll wait a couple months and see if that’s true, and how my ADHD will play into that.
Did my introspective gift hurt me a little bit a LOT? Yes! And my whole Fediverse, and later, Discord addiction is what taught me that. It helped me realize that I need to know when it’s hurting, not helping me. As well as not letting it exacerbate my FOMO when it comes to video games or projects.
I treated the fact I wasn’t in on every single pop culture or inside joke as a flaw within myself. After truly realizing that was unhealthy, and (slowly) getting off Discord for good, I can say I feel much more content with my life when I don’t compare it to the lives of others'. Especially since everything is amplified, and filtered to look perfect online.
I keep this pretty simple and broad. Learning to balance and manage my time better, as well as not falling down a pit of self-loathing. That’s probably going to happen again anyway, but it’s about making it easier to pull myself out of those slumps.