To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with either of those statements, in that strict self denial has negative connotations to me. It's one thing to have discipline, but that seems a little too intense to me. (Granted, I'm probably not even on the path, much less Long versus Short.)

So, I don't support either of those statements above as a life plan for most people.

And, most especially not for you, as you already give yourself a hard enough time. I'm assuming that the comment that was made was trying to point out that you are far, far to rough on yourself. And that you beat yourself up too much. You may not put yourself to physical duress (sports), you have a tendency to bend that energy towards mental duress.