By Leonard Citron, M.A.
Some people struggle to accept things at face value, and can find themselves constantly questioning others (and their own) motivations, and often assume the worst. For example, perhaps at work you don’t believe it when you get positive feedback from your boss, and question whether s/he is genuine or not. Part of our goal is to get people to be more objective.
If your boss says you are doing a good job, it’s probably because s/he means it – they probably don’t have any agenda to do anything to the contrary. If we look at the facts; it’s a free market with plenty of competition; would your boss really have any reason to say that you are doing a good job if you are not?
Perhaps you don’t value their judgment, or think that they aren’t capable of understanding you. Then why would you worry about it? In the eyes of that person, you are still doing a really good job. Be more objective, consider that you may be projecting and that not everyone shares your opinion.
Take positive feedback on board and always be sure to put it in the context in which it is delivered, and look at whether these people really have anything to gain by being nice just for the sake of being nice. If they don’t, perhaps in fact the feedback is true, and you should enjoy the fact that you are doing better than you think.