Ah, THIS! I’m prone to weaving my own version of events in my head without consulting reality to see if it’s *really* true.

I had a bit of a revelation about this after reading a Brene Brown book.. I think it was ‘The Power of Vulnerability’. We often weave our own internal stories based on our perception of the world. A blank glance from a colleague can become the foundation of ‘Oh no! What have I done to Brian? Why didn’t he smile today? Was it X, Y or Z?’.

As a bit of an introvert, I think I’m especially prone to this as there’s an awful lot of processing & extrapolating going on in my noggin.

Think you’ve picked the right tactic here btw. Frame it as a learning experience. Having been on both sides of bad work decisions, it’s nice to be asked ‘What went wrong with X?’ as well as ask ‘What can I do better regarding X?’.

Ps. Kudos for working this through out in the open. I think the Peter Principle only applies to people to get promoted to their own level of incompetence and then hide there. :)