Do you ever one of those days where no matter how hard you try, you make a fool of yourself? Every day, I hear you say. Nah, only kidding. But seriously, today I ran a meeting at work, which I do periodically. Now, this sort of thing is not my strength, as I am not naturally a good speaker or particularly comfortable holding court. However, I always try my best and usually manage to make a decent go of it. Today I prepared as always, had my agenda and key points, and felt fine. During the meeting was another matter. Others in my team were involved in delivering elements of the agenda and my first error was to talk on the one point when my colleague was meant to, so I effectively blanked her. Not good. Then I bounced a question off another person, realising at the moment I asked him that he wasn't even the one responsible for that area. The meeting ran in a stilted fashion and I couldn't wait to end it and get the freaking hell out of there! Now these small errors may seem trivial, and perhaps most of the staff didn't even notice, but I am a perfectionist and hate to get things wrong.
So, I'm boring the pants off all of you. My apologies. Thank God it is the weekend, as Britain looks forward to more frigid temperatures and heavy snow.
To end, thank goodness for perfume. The one thing I did right today was to wear Orange Star by Andy Tauer, after reading a post on it by Chicken Freak. I do love this perfume and on an icy cold winter day it sings on my skin, all juicy warm orange, woods, vanilla and an effect like incense. Gorgeous. Thank you Andy for a wonderful creation.
Image credit: Freestockphotography.com.au
I love your personal stories, Michael!
ReplyDeleteOh I have done similar - I did a HUGE faux pas early this year - two agencies were aggravated with one another, and I didn't realise it, so I said something to the extent of "I just don't understand why we all cannot work together on this issue?" boy, did eye-daggers fly!
Glad you were soothed by Orange Star! And enjoy your weekend.
Frida thank you for the kind comments. It's always good to hear from you, and have a good weekend too.
ReplyDeleteMichael, for some reason, I missed this post when it came out. I've decided that making an ass of myself, and working through it, has built more confidence than anything else. If one isn't willing to take risks (and blow it sometimes), what's the point?
ReplyDeleteNext time your inner perfectionist chides you, just remember: perfection is boring and once you get everything Just So, the world has left you behind. Perfection is seriously overrated!