Your biggest fan
On who we choose to listen to / Issue 1,204
Oh, hi friends!
What would your grandma say?
Maybe you weren't close with your grandma. Substitute another person from your life in there.
What would your father say?
What would your fifth grade teacher say?
What would your first boss say?
What would your favorite coworker from three jobs ago say?
What would they say about where you are right now, and what you're doing?
I'd like to think they would say something positive, something hopeful.
Something to connect you back to the person they see, the one they know.
They would say, I always knew you were going to go far.
Or maybe they are more creative and less cliche than I am.
I always knew you had great ideas.
Wait, that's still obvious.
I always knew good things would happen for you.
OK. It all sounds obvious, because it is obvious.
People in your life who support you…are actually telling you the truth.
Encouragement is hard to hear because it's more seductive to listen to voices that don't support you.
Mmm yes. Tweets, reviews, people who are on a different page, different planet.
Even silence. Oh, the silence — when you're waiting to hear back from whoever — is deafening. And yet we keep tuning in to that specific brand of noise, thinking the truth is hidden inside. Surely, this stranger who doesn’t know me must be right…
The truth comes from the people who know you and appreciate you and understand how hard you're working, trying, surviving.
Maybe those are the voices you should let ring out.
The rest? Let it be static.
You know who came to mind while I read this? First, one of my old bosses. I remember when I screwed something up and was really upset about it. His encouragement was, “look at everything you did right.” And that’s all. He walked away after that. That had to be over forty years ago, and I still remember it. The second person that came to mind was my sister. When I got laid off in 2004 and decided to start my own business, she told everyone she knew how proud she was of me. She handed out my business card. She lived in Missouri. I live in Nebraska. I was offering drafting services. She had nothing to gain. Then I read the static part and I thought about how both of them were dead now. The third person that came to mind was a friend that came into my life when I was heavily pregnant with my last child thirty years ago. She hasn’t read my work, but she encourages me to continue. And she’s alive. I wonder if it makes any difference if the voices that I choose to listen to are past or present? Probably not.
my grandpa! He would tell me he always knew that I had so much to give, and that I would do it just right. ♥️