negative nancy strikes again

We had a big meeting today with the organisation that commissioned the big project I've been working on. It was their opportunity to comment on our first draft and provide feedback. They didn't have too much to critique, and the things they mentioned should be relatively easy to fix. They did say that they'll give themselves two weeks to really go through it and make notes of all their concerns. So I came out of the meeting terrified. My boss's boss came out of the meeting really positive and upbeat about it. I had to take a coffee and muffin break this afternoon to clear my brain and figure out why I was being so negative!

I know it's no surprise to any of you that I'm a pessimist. Part of my negative feelings relating to this meeting have to do with my own insecurities about the quality and completeness of my work, and the worry that any minute now, someone is going to point out huge flaws in it. I realised that I was assuming this was an iceberg situation: the feedback they gave in the meeting today was just them scratching the surface of the tip of an iceberg. They were just being polite, surely! Two weeks from now, I'll receive pages and pages of comments and the whole bloody thing will need a complete overall!

My boss's boss, on the other hand, heard their few criticisms and assumed it was the worst they could possibly muster. As far as he's concerned, if that's the worse, then we're doing great! They failed to congratulate us on what an awesome job we did, but if they didn't come right out and say, "The document you have submitted is a massive disappointment and not what we were hoping for at all," then they must be relatively happy with it, right?

Yes. Yes, I think so. I need to go home, look at myself in the bathroom mirror, and remind myself that I'm awesome.