Are you the worst boss you’ve ever had?
Are you the worst boss you’ve ever had?
I know it is a confronting question for most of us in self-employment, but think about that for a moment.
Do you say mean stuff about your work?
Is your inner manager a bully?
Do you complain about your lack of productivity, no matter how much you get done?
Do you catch yourself mocking your ideas and putting your work down?
Is the pressure so great, it feels like you’ve only got one shot at getting your next move right?
If what you do is less than perfect, do you feel shame?
Are you your harshest critic?
Do you underpay yourself?
Do you do much more work than you get paid for?
Do you hold yourself to extremely high, even unrelenting, standards?
Are you telling yourself clients, collaborators, workmates, and peers don’t like you?
Do you let the people who don’t understand your work belittle it or make it less meaningful?
Do you believe the story that people don’t value what you do?
Are you interrupting sleep and rest time to ruminate, stress about, and lament your working circumstances?
Are you abandoning your own ideas because you are afraid they are not good enough?
Or that the ideas are good, but you’re not good enough to execute them?
Do you tell yourself you should follow what others do because that’s safer than backing your ideas?
Are you hyper-critical and judgmental of others? Do you believe others will be critical and judgmental about you?
Is your workload unrealistic?
Are you relentlessly competitive and bitchy, making it difficult to make friends and connections?
Can you count on yourself to think of the cynical take when you feel optimistic or hopeful?
Are you exhausted and cranky?
Do you make yourself take work with you on holidays, with the kids, or when you’re sick?
Do you dismiss your business and creative instincts?
Do you take things so seriously, it makes it difficult to feel free enough to try new things?
Are you comparing yourself to everyone else instead of running your own race?
Are you calling yourself names, telling yourself you matter less than other people, and that you are lacking in some way?
Do you motivate yourself with fear, insults, shame, threats, and even cruelty?
If you make a mistake, are you bitchy, mean, and hypercritical?
Does the biggest pressure you have on your shoulders come from within?
Are you so concerned with what other business owners will say about you or that you won’t fit in, you don’t take part in networking or other opportunities?
Are you so worried about rejection or keeping up appearances, you choose financial stress and strain over tackling late or missing payments?
Do you people please and then get resentful when no one thanks you for it?
Do you think it’s bad and says something about your character if celebrate the good work you do? Especially in public?
Do you dismiss your self-care needs as trivial, unimportant, and less than the needs of others?
Do you question why you’re not where you think you should be? Even allowing that to become self-doubt or self-punishment?
Are you telling yourself that you just need more passion, more commitment, and that you’re not doing enough yet to succeed?
Are you placing too much importance on your ability to change things?
Are you afraid of facing rejection and failing to take calculated risks because of it?
Do you hang around business peers who make you feel miserable?
Do you have all the responsibility but none of the control?
Do you justify putting up with bad customer behaviour as the cost of doing business?
Are you afraid of customers or clients because it never goes to plan?
Is the list of things you’ll refuse to do much bigger than the ones you’ll do happily?
Do you put off what inspires you in favour of punishing drudgery?
Are you scared of saying no?
Do you work in a culture of fear?
If you’ve ticked any of these, it’s time to challenge this thinking!
- Go back to each question you said yes to and ask yourself WHY x 5.
- Read the answers aloud.