I love myself more and more each day.

The measurable version is the tone of the commentary. Everyone runs one, a low murmur about how that meeting went, how you looked, whether that was a stupid thing to say. It rarely goes silent. It does change register.

Compare it with a year ago if you can still remember. Most people find the cruellest lines have thinned out slightly, not through effort but through attrition, repeated so often they stopped being believable.

Daily improvement here is far too small to feel. It shows up in the gap between last year's harshness and this week's, which is only visible when you deliberately look back.