My drive to improve others makes me a never-pleased father figure. Is there a way out?

‘Perhaps it might help to reflect on the pain you might cause. It is an awful, hollowing feeling to be perpetually found wanting.’ Painting: Sowing the Word 1868 by Daniel Huntington. Photograph: The New York Historical Society/Getty Images

I have this compelling drive to improve others that most times ends with me in trouble, as others don’t necessarily want to improve and are happy where they are. It also makes me unpleasant to be with, a never-pleased father figure. Is there a way out of this compulsion?

Eleanor says: There used to be a man not unlike this in my workplace and whenever I saw him a circus MC voice would start playing in my head: “Roll up, roll up, it’s the incredible unsatisfiable man: no shortcoming too small, for two cents he’ll criticise his life but for free he’ll criticise yours!”