Do you know who the hardest boss to please is?
The boss that demands the most from you. The boss who won’t lift a finger to help you. The boss who belittles you.
The most impossible boss you will ever work for in your life is the one staring back at you in the mirror.
The expectations you have for you are high. The excuses you have for you, they don’t fly. (Insert “crying laughing emoji’ followed by “eye-roll emoji” over my own rhyme here.)
You bemoan and berate yourself day in and day out with thoughts like…
- “I should be better by now; I really need to be more disciplined.”
- “This shouldn’t be so hard. Really it’s so easy a caveman could do it.”
- “Why can’t I make progress? Everyone else is running circles around me.”
Well, I hate to break it to ya, but it’s hard to succeed with that kind of boss breathing down your neck. No one would last a month at a company like that.
I’d even bet that if you are the CEO of a company, you wouldn’t treat your employees the way you treat yourself at times. Even the worst of bosses know they need to show kindness, a little compassion, to their workers.
But do we show kindness to ourselves? When we make a mistake, when we struggle to focus, when we get sick or our body doesn’t respond as we’d like it to, what do we say to ourselves?
Quit working for that boss who won’t let up. Who won’t bend or give a sick day. No two-weeks notice necessary. No wondering if it’s the right decision.
You go look at her/him in the mirror and say, “That’s enough. I’m not taking orders from you. You don’t have my best interest in mind.”
It will be nearly impossible to accomplish your goals if you spend your days beating yourself up and pushing yourself too far.
Start showing yourself the same kindness and compassion you expect from those you do work for and see how the dynamics of your day change.
Mandy