The Anxious Achiever

5 Negative Self-Talk

In my twenties I worked in a toxic environment on a national political campaign. I developed a reputation in my department for being disorganized. On a political campaign everyone runs around like mad, trying to prove how hard they’re working and how much they’re getting done (whether it’s true or not). For some reason, my bosses loved to pick apart my writing and use it as proof of disorganization. One day the department director, Doug, decided to make fun of how I wrote memos in front of the whole team. “Have you ever read one of her memos?” Doug asked. “They make no sense!” Everyone laughed.

The truth is, I was twenty-six years old and in over my head. I wrote bad memos because I didn’t know what I was doing. I was ...