“I don’t know man, I just seem like I’m, I dunno, stuck or something.”
“What do you mean stuck?”
“I mean everything I try, it just seems like I’m in the same place. Like I keep running and running and I’m not going forward or anything. Like if I stop, I’ll fall behind or something. It sucks.”
“So what would you like it to be like?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean what would you like it to be like. If you could snap your fingers, and magically make everything the way you want it, with regard to this thing, what would you see or feel or hear that would be different than it is now?”
“Well, for one, my boss could tell me I”m doing a good job.”
“Are you doing a good job?”
“Of course.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I know what my job is, and I know when I’m doing it right, and when I’m doing it wrong. I’ve been there for over five years, you know.”
“I know. I know. So when you do a good job, and you know you’re doing a good job, how does it get better when your boss says something to you?  Do you think that he doesn’t know you are doing a good job?”
“No, if I wasn’t doing a good job, he would know, and he would ask me what was wrong.”
“He wouldn’t just yell at you? Tell you to do it better?”
“No, he knows I know what I’m doing. So if I started slacking off, he’d think maybe something was wrong, something at home or something.”
“Wow, sounds like a pretty good boss. I wish my boss was like that sometimes.”
“Yea.”
“So maybe he doesn’t say ‘good job,’ because he knows that you know, and that would mean that he really respects your opinion of yourself. Do you know how rare that is today? For somebody to know you well enough, and know and respect your own opinion of yourself?”
“Yea, I guess that is pretty cool.”
“So maybe you should tell him, ‘good job,’ huh?”
“Hmm. Maybe I will. Maybe I will.”