Hubris Will Get You Every Time
I have a regular client who is always very complimentary of my work. As she comes out of the treatment room she almost always exclaims “Fabulous!” or “Amazing!” or “Excellent!” or something similar. Today, as she was preparing to leave and I was glancing at my planner, I decided to start jotting down her comments in my calendar. So she comes out of the treatment room and says, “very good.” That’s it. No effusive adjectives. No exclamation points. Just, “very good.” That will teach me to get all proud and self-congratulatory. Needless to say, I have dropped the planned compliment-documentation project.
This actually gets at one of the things I like about this job. In the massage biz, there is no room for resting on your laurels or phoning in your work. You’ve got to be 100% present and 100% non-egotistical every day, every hour, every minute, or the mojo will get out of whack. How humbling.