This is an archived blog from when I ran Conscious Public Relations Inc. from 2008-2018. Excuse the potential outdated-ness!
Digging through misunderstandings
It’s been a fine few weeks since the sun has been relentless in the city. Yesterday I came across an emotional roadblock – the same one that makes me feel inferior when I (think I) fail to understand people.
When you don’t know someone so well, it’s hard to read them or to know how they communicate. Actually, sometimes I fail to understand Leo when he says things the first time. So I know I’m always going to need to improve my listening and interpreting skills.
There was clearly some misunderstanding going on between the group of people I was with, and I realized how I was coming across based on how I was interpreting what they were saying. When I realized that I was not coming across the way I wanted to at all, I shifted gears… but after the discussion I still felt that pang of guilt as if I had done something wrong. There’s that self-punishing again from not performing as well as I want to.
Since I’m not regularly attending my self-development classes or seeing my coach, I had to use the tools I learned to dig into why I felt the way I felt. And I realize it’s that part of me that wants to appear perfect, and perform perfectly, that punishes myself. I don’t like failing, but failure and I are becoming better friends and I am learning from it – not only that I still self-punish, but that there is lots of room for improvement when it comes to understanding others and myself.
Thanks, misunderstanding. Good lessons today.
