Head Trash

Sometimes, saying that something is “easy” or “straightforward” can create head trash; if you struggle with a task that someone else calls “easy” or “straightforward,” you could start to think that a person doesn’t care or that they’re trying to pick on you. When undesirable things happen to us because of interactions with our leaders, dispatchers, or fellow technicians, we all too often start building unproductive narratives about those people.

Those narratives can spiral out of control and draw in lots of negativity. When we read into people’s motives (especially unfavorably), we forget the facts. We assume so much, but we often don’t realize how little people often think about us. It’s a good idea to take out that “head trash” so that it doesn’t keep piling up and turning us into negative, unproductive people. Sometimes, we need to have conversations to establish that we’re on good terms with others, and that’s okay; it could help us get rid of that head trash.

Managing your expectations is a good way to stop head trash from building up. That can go for our personal lives and our professional lives. Set expectations in a way that avoids disappointment and over-promising. That way, you can prevent head trash from forming in your head or others’ heads.

In the end, we all just really want growth. Head trash gets in the way of that, and it’s up to us to keep our head trash in check and check in with people when we’re not sure where they stand with us.