The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 50 Degrees
If you work with a client for long enough… eventually, whether you like it or not, they’re going to find out that you are human.
They’ll discover you make mistakes.
They’ll discover you’re not [gasp] perfect.
It might not happen on the first date, or the second or even the fifth. But it will happen. So best get ready for it now.
It’s really not a big deal for it to be revealed that you’re human. Well, your ego thinks it’s a big deal… your need for acceptance thinks it’s a big deal… your inner most fears think it’s a big deal.
Really, it’s not. But we’re trained to go through our lives protecting this most sacred of secrets. What if they find out?
Ha…
Early in my career, that moment used to cause me to do really stupid things. Things like asking for less money, or rushing my work more than I should have, or committing to things that were extremely unnecessary.
Life is too short to argue with what is. So the best thing to do when you mess up is to accept it and keep working from there.
In other words, be OK with the fact that you’re going to screw up.
That doesn’t mean you won’t work to fix it if you do. It DOES mean that making mistakes will not slow or stop your forward progress.
There’s an odd power you inherit when you accept things that happen. Instead of giving your power away to whatever happened, or whoever “made” it happen, you keep your power for yourself.
It is pretty rare in today’s world for someone to stand in the middle of their mess and refuse to make excuses or to rationalize it away. It is rare for someone to take responsibility, be accountable, and work to move forward.
If you do this, you will stick out.
I’m not saying I’ve mastered it. My training was way too deep to do that in just a few years. But I’m getting way better than I was.
It’s a journey you know?
All you have to do to make progress is keep walking in the direction of your dreams.