#237 – When does following up become chasing?The sales website Saleslion mentions,"60% of customers say no four times before saying yes.""Persistence is key," they say. But when does persistence become insistence, the characteristic if annoying trait...
#236 – And when they don't like... me?The only honest response here would be a giant ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ."You don't like me? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So what?"The problem is, many of us people-pleasers (recovering or active) take so much responsibility for other people...
#235 – What happens when they don't like your work?Have you ever felt like you did something wrong because someone didn't like your work?I have. August, 2003, Pan-European Voice Conference in Graz, Austria. I'd memorized my speaking notes for th...
#234 – If not praise, what is worth working for?There's a question creators ask one another often – what is it for?Although it's a fair question, which can bring depth to any creative endeavor, I believe it's often misunderstood. It's easy to make th...
#233 – How can praise stunt your creative progress?People who do creative work tend to fear criticism: what if they don't like it, we think.But there's something more dangerous than audiences disliking our work – their enthusiastic praise.In 2003 I s...
#232 – What signal does patience send your brain?As defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, patience is"the ability to wait, or to continue doing something despite difficulties, or to suffer without complaining&nb...
#231 – What's the source of your indecision?"If you have more than one reason to do something (choose a doctor or veterinarian, hire a gardener or an employee, marry a person, go on a trip), just don’t do it. It does not mean that one reason is bette...
#230 – Has "feeling good" become a tyranny?A few years ago, I met a woman in an online community whose husband had died unexpectedly. She wrote that, when learning the news, she'd dropped to her knees, in disbelief and unfathomable pain.Then, she sai...
#229 – Is self-victimization keeping you stuck in guilt?The Ghost of Misplaced Guilt (GoMG) had been gnawing at my ear every Monday since I started my weekend job selling coffee machines at a mall, with a commute of at least 90 minutes each way. "You...
#228 – What does openness give you that hope doesn't?The act of hoping is, in itself, a judgment.Hoping implies categorizing some life events as intrinsically, objectively "desirable," and others as "undesirable."But is that true? Desirable according...