Member-only story
If You’re Looking For Problems, You’ll Find Them
The world is not out to get you
Early in my career I used to come home from some days at work seething with anger.
Someone had — in my perception — stolen an idea from me, or deliberately talked me down in a meeting, or been sycophantic to a big boss in a clear (in my mind) attempt to manoeuvre themselves above me in the pecking order.
I’d scheme ways I could slyly let them know I was on to them. Or make it clear to everyone else how unfair it was.
All this time, after I’d left work, I was still thinking about work. Stressing myself out.
I can see now it was all nonsense. People were in the their own lanes, doing their own thing, and I should have been in mine, instead of worrying what everyone else was doing.
Here’s the brutal cold hard truth:
People at work (or in life in general) don’t really care about you that much. They’re too busy getting on with getting on.
The times when you feel tired or down, or not happy with the way you look, or you said something wrong in a meeting the day before and you walk in the office convinced you’re going to be judged or “noticed” from minute 1...
