We think, That’s stupid. I don’t need to prepare for that. I don’t need to roleplay. I don’t need to micromanage my own life. I got this.
And then we’re embarrassed when it’s those stupid little things that trip us up.
So we make excuses about how it was really something bigger that got us.
Some examples:
- I don’t need to practice waking up to my alarm. I don’t need to lay down in the middle of the day under the covers in my PJs, set an alarm for three minutes, and then get up immediately when it goes off. That’s stupid.
- I don’t need to hear how to answer the phone. I don’t need help with the tone of my voice. That’s stupid. I know how to do this.
- I don’t need a reminder on my phone to text my sister. If I don’t think of it on my own, the reminder feels like I’m forcing it. That’s weird.
But then we don’t get up right when the alarm goes off.
We don’t answer the phone the same as everyone else in the company. We don’t say something so on brand that people talk about it afterward, like they do with Chick-Fil-A saying, “My pleasure.”
We don’t text. And then it’s been two years.
I think our ability to improve is directly proportional to our ability to humble ourselves to recognize, No, it’s not stupid to over prepare. It’s not stupid to roleplay, even if our brain says we know how to do it. It’s not stupid to micromanage nearly every aspect of our life. It’s not stupid to get help.
We need more help than we think. And that’s okay.
