“He who wants to judge the present, must possess a sufficient past” – Random Paper Wisdom
Dear Life,
You really know how to keep throwing meaningful lessons at me, Life. Like this week, when you taught me why I dread visiting my Monday client.
I am always anxious to go there, because her mood determines her behaviour. Strongly.
When she is in a good mood, I can’t to do anything wrong and the praise keeps coming, like a beautiful waterfall flowing into a clear river.
But when her mood is bad, everything I do is wrong wrong WRONG and the waterfall consists of nothing but scolding and belittling remarks, polluting that same river.
Standing up for myself is futile: when she is like this, she’s very unreasonable and me trying to rationalise my actions or explain I didn’t do whatever she accused me of only makes her more angry.
So I take it all as if I am an emotionless rock, both her positive and negative expostulations, but she actually gets to me. I feel more and more reluctant to go there, never knowing what state I’ll find her in. Or what I can do to make her happy, being the people-pleaser that I am.
And that’s when you momentarily lifted your curtain of mysteries for me, Life. You showed I cannot ever please her! My emotional antennae to catch her vibe don’t work, so I can’t figure her out. I can’t read her like I do other people!
I have been so focused on pleasing her I got swallowed up in that process, while instead I should have been focussing on pleasing myself by doing my job with flair, like I always do. Have fun while cleaning, letting her remarks enter one ear and exit through the other.
Shift the attention from her mood swings to doing my job. And in doing so, refocus on pleasing myself.
Heart to Follow 
From your next to last paragraph it sounds like you have learned a valuable lesson from this woman. Put another way, “Nothing outside you has the power to upset you unless you let it.” The less you worry about what people think, the less complicated your life becomes. Have a great week!
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I know, you are absolutely right! I’ve found that often the most difficult people I have to deal with, end up teaching me the most important lessons. Like, unknowingly, they give me the biggest gift they can by being difficult, haha.
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It’s interesting where spiritual teachers pop up in our lives.
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And you have a great week, too, of course! 🙂
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So what kind of work do you do?
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I clean homes. Besides that, I am trying to recruit clients for my Life Coaching business, but so far no luck. Not giving up, though! Because I don’t want to clean houses forever D:
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Well I think you will succeed. Just a matter of time.
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Thank you for your trust in me, Tony 🙂
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That is such an important lesson to learn–you cannot help how another person is feeling, if they are in a nasty mood and so on. You can help yourself avoid the bitterness and not let them bring you down. J.
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True, true! Today, I just went my business and I felt a lot happier doing my chores 🙂 I think it rubbed off on her, as she wasn’t so hard on me like she was last week.
What also helped was my mother found some glass figurines and thought this client might like them – she did! What ALSO helped was that it appeared to be her birthday, so the gift was VERY well received 🙂
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Not sure I would call it a revelation, but maybe. I’ve written way too much over the years, plus I’m always reading. Someone sent me three poems, the first two were nice, but the last one just took me on an emotional rollercoaster. My gosh, I need to try harder to write something that really stirs one’s emotions.
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Maybe you don’t have to try that hard. Sometimes the things I write with the least thoughts behind it, end up being my best works! Write from your heart and you’re likely to succeed at reaching someone else’s 🙂
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Life and the seasons always change.
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Ain’t that the truth! Good thing the seasons, and Life probably, too, know what they’re doing 🙂
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