As part of becoming good at something you need to be able to reflect upon yourself. Judge your own abilities and work and consider the possibility that what ever you have been doing it wrong all along. Or perhaps you're actually being to hard on yourself and you're better than your conscious is telling you. (This is bad too because it leads to insecurities.)

Signs that you might overestimate your current skills.
Do you often feel these things when you look upon work from good artists?:

• I can totally do this too.

• This is not so hard, I can do this faster.

• My work is way more interesting.

• It's not fair that this person gets way more attention than I do.

• Why am I not being recognized for my skills.

• This other technique is cheating! (photo-bashing, using reference, filters, effects etc)

• I don't need to draw and learn all day to become this good.

• I spend 2 hours on a painting, Masterpiece!!

Signs that you might underestimate your skills.
Do you often feel these things when you look upon work from good artists?:

• I can couldn't do this in a lifetime!

• This is not too hard, this will take me weeks of painting to come even close.

• My work is too boring.

• My work does not deserve the compliments it's getting.

• I need to give up on everything in life to be able to draw better.

• I should be giving up.

• This person's work is so good, it makes me feel depressed and very self conscious about how much my own work sucks!

• I will never be hired by company's for my work.

• I am not going to post this artwork online, no one will care about it anyway.

It's hard to find the right balance, it's a constant process of comparing last weeks work with your current work. If it does not seem to be better, there is a chance you have been standing still a bit.
You always need growth, small steps or big leaps, that depends on you.
If you're passionate about art you got to work hard and most of all stay curious and hungry for knowledge. It remains important not to forget your health, both mental and physical.Get regular exercise and eat healthy (I know very well how long hours behind a computer causes the munchies!).
I personally go through a lot of mixed feelings, sometimes I even get complete opposites on the same day! Feeling great about my career and positive about my current skills at one moment, then totally crashed down and insecure in the next. This is very tiring, but also very normal. As long as you don't lean to much on 1 of the extremes it's a perfectly healthy emotional roller-coaster most of us creative's go through.

How to reflect upon your own work?
(The way I do it.) Post your self reflection in the comments!

Is my current work better than my previous work?

Yes/No/A little

Have I done research on specific topics that would help me, before starting my last painting?

Yes/No/A little

Have I made enough sketches of my idea before I started to render things out?

Yes/No/A few.

Have I pushed my last painting as far as I can?

Yes/No/I'm not sure.

Have I taken enough breaks during the process of the image? ( You need breaks from your work to later review it again with fresh eyes.)

Yes/No/Not enough.

Am I satisfied with the end result of the last painting?

Yes/No/Indifferent.

Is my work lacking an element? (Storytelling, interest, something that makes it special)

Yes/No/Maybe.

A good way of reviewing your work to is to save most of it. Create a time-line for yourself now and then, such as these:

  

Let me know if you have any comments or questions!

All my other journals:
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Thanks for all the comments! I will do my best to reply to most of them, even if it sometimes takes a while, reading these always cheers me up a lot! 

Wanna ask me direct questions? Come hang with me on Twitch sometime where I paint and give feedback

Suzanne Helmigh Twitch channel

Disclaimer: The artwork posted in my journals are not made by me but artists I admire. This is my way of sharing their incredibly work with the rest of you. All these journals are based on my personal experience and that of artist friends. English is my second language and I have dyslexia so do note I am prone to make mistakes. I write these journals to remind myself of the things I've learned.

Thank you!