Redefining Success
I’m used to impossibly high standards. Now I choose my own definition of success which is work life balance.
It was almost the end of the work day. My boss came over to my desk and pulled up a chair. He gave me a marked up copy of my report and said, “You need to rewrite this. It’s not factual enough.”
I looked up surprised and self-conscious. He said this in front of my coworkers instead of telling me in private. “Ok, I’ll take another look at it,” I replied.
I made some changes and sent it over to him for another review. “This is better. Keep doing this.” he told me.
I was relieved and slightly disappointed. I thought the assignment was to summarize and provide an analysis. But apparently, all I had to do was summarize. Paraphrase, essentially. I was relieved because that was relatively easy to do. I was disappointed and frustrated because I realized that I was making things way harder for myself than they had to be. I was also disappointed because I liked creative writing and this job didn’t use that skill. I left that day feeling lost, insecure, and underpaid. It was one of my first job experiences. I felt like I wasn’t doing anything right, nor was I getting clear and consistent feedback.
