I blew it. At least, that’s what my boss was telling me. I sure felt like I blew it.<\/p>\n
Maybe I did. Things had gone off track, that’s for sure.<\/p>\n
I was used to this feeling, like a pair of old pants. Slide them on, smooth as that, no struggle and I was sure I had screwed the pooch.<\/p>\n
I couldn’t fix it. We couldn’t go back in time. So I sat in my stinky pants feeling terrible.<\/p>\n
I didn’t want to feel terrible. I halfway tried to find people who would help me feel better.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t until I was driving home that I remembered:<\/p>\n
Bosses make mistakes too. All the time.<\/p>\n
Amy Cuddy’s book Presence talks about how we imagine the people who have more responsibility. That the higher up the org chart, the more stress, and the harder they work. We imagine that it is very hard, and we begrudge their superior pay and benefits less.<\/p>\n
In reality, people who have more responsibility actually have less stress.<\/p>\n
Because people who are confident–that special cocktail of testosterone, cortisol and moxie–they are more confident and less concerned about pleasing.<\/p>\n
I spent years beating myself over mistakes. What if I just stopped?<\/p>\n
I could shed it. I could decide to allow myself a huge number of mistakes, as many as it took, to do what needed to be done.<\/p>\n
And maybe what needs to be done is to become a different person. To shed this perfectionist skin and emerge entirely different.<\/p>\n
You know you snakes shed their skin? By beating their heads against a rock to rough and loosen it up.<\/p>\n
I’ve been beating my head against an immovable object. Maybe I’m finally ready to slough off these scales and re-emerge.<\/p>\n
Mistakes are my friend. I’m gonna see how that works out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I blew it. At least, that’s what my boss was telling me. I sure felt like I blew it. Maybe I did. Things had gone off track, that’s for sure. I was used to this feeling, like a pair of … Continue reading