Nothing is ever quite right. Including me.
When the She Sees What Could Be Better energy is in the Miss Cranky Pants version, you see everything that’s wrong. And you can’t turn it off.
In this energy, your ability to spot what isn’t working can be a very helpful tool. But the Cranky Pants energy of She Sees What Could Be Better applies it to everything and everyone. Including the people closest to you. And most of all, yourself.
This cranky energy is Criticism, the correcting eye aimed everywhere at once. It’s exhausting to live with, both for you and for the people around you.
I wish I didn’t have a lived experience of this energy, but I do. Back when I had my quilting and knitting store, I had a regular customer who became a friend. We often did things together when I had a day away from the shop. We’ll call her Sally. Definitely not her real name.
Sally was a divorced, single mom of two kids. She was a very sensitive, sweet soul. Her taste in partners sucked. Her ex-husband treated her and their kids horribly. One of the children fell and fractured their arm while they were with their dad for the weekend. He never took them to get medical treatment. That fell to Sally when the kids came home to her.
I honestly can’t remember the details of what went on with one of the fellas Sally dated when we hung out together. But he was horrible to her. And at one point, when she asked me for my thoughts about her situation, I didn’t hold back. And I hurt her. Our friendship was never the same.
It’s one of those life lessons that stings because it’s still filled with regret. I was way too critical. She deserved better from me, a friend she trusted.
The internal version of this cranky, critical energy is particularly brutal. You hold yourself to a standard that shifts the moment you reach it. You find the flaw in your own work before anyone else has a chance to appreciate what’s right with it.
And yeah, I’m very familiar with this internal criticism, too. My husband called me out on it just the other day. Before he and our friends could appreciate my work, I was pointing out what I wasn’t happy with and what I wanted to change. Yikes. Still working on that one.
The external version of the cranky, criticism energy of She Sees What Could Be Better shows up in relationships. You love the people in your life. And you can see so clearly what’s holding them back. So you tell them. Again. And again.
What comes from a place of real care lands as relentless fault-finding, and the relationship pays the price.
Underneath all of this is, “Nothing is ever quite right. Including me.”
Find your happy. Love what you do. Make a difference. Come back to me safely. See ya!
