One of my clients said that my “just because I don’t want to“ lack of drinking alcohol and “never in my life” drug use stresses her out.
“Even when we’re not working together, I’m still stressed about it,” she said. “No alcohol? No weed? In the middle of a pandemic? Or ever? What the hell are you thinking?”
I’m wasn’t sure if she was worried about me or herself, but either way, my suggestion was simple:
“You be you, and I’ll be me. Okay?”
“Not okay,” she snapped, still visibly annoyed.
In response, I offered her a list of behaviors that stress me out, in an attempt to make her feel better.
My list included:
- Watching people play stupid games on their phones
- Listening to people talk about coffee as if it were somehow an interesting or entertaining subject
- Color coding for the sake of color coding
- Adults who run meetings as if the attendees are children
- Parents who can’t hear their children’s questions because they’re too busy staring at their phones
- Presentations that needlessly have more than one presenter
- People who find a restroom door locked but knock on the door anyway
- Children eating grapes
- Listening to adults threaten consequences to children that will never happen
- Shoppers who move through a grocery store as if it’s the place to be
- Anyone who needlessly uses BCC
- The inefficiency of a Little League practice
- Relentless complainers
See? We all have things that get to us.
She said my list didn’t help.
