The Desert of Arizona
Partly Cloudy 51 Degrees
I’m going to tell you about one of my worst clients, and then we’ll play a game and see if you can guess who it is. Fun? Of course!
For this client, I can never do anything right. He keeps me around, because he doesn’t have a choice. But everything I submit is met with a never ending string of complaints.
This isn’t going to work. Is that the best you’ve got? This was supposed to be done yesterday. Like I said, COMPLAINTS.
But it gets worse…
This client haggles over EVERY fee. Every fee gets pressure put on it. And the pressure is never up… always DOWN.
But there’s more…
This client has obviously spoken with my family members (thanks Mom!), because he seems to know EXACTLY which buttons to press to drive me nuts.
Now I told you that this individual was one of my worst “clients.” And he is. Unfortunately, he’s also the very same guy I see when I go run over and look in the mirror.
He’s a nut job. And sometimes, he just makes me want to jump off a bridge.
My guess is that you might have a “client” just like this. And that client might be the one staring back at YOU in the mirror.
What do we do about these folks? What do we do with your #1 critic?
Well, the solution is simple, not always easy. “Shun the non-believers…” as Seth Godin would say.
The art of ignoring is effective because it stops feeding energy into things that you want to die. When you stop feeding the beast, it will starve.
This is easy to say, easy to think, fairly easy to “do.” But to really FEEL it, that takes some practice.
In the meantime, you act in spite of the voices. You act in spite of the fear. You act in spite of your own inner heckler. Pretty soon, something crazy happens.
What I’m talking about is that you’re going to slip up. Yes, you actually screw up. But this is the right kind of screwing up. Your inner critic will be amused at first. Until that individual realizes its days are numbered.
Because one day, when you “screw up” and forget to criticize yourself… you might find yourself actually believing in yourself, even if just for a moment. And at that point, you’ll be in for quite a surprise.
You’ll finally see what everyone else around you has known for quite some time. And you’ll never be the same.