When a friend shares her career insecurities, it can be hard to be honest in response, especially when you’re confident things are going to work out for yourself. She shared her fears, and even though you love her, you definitely don’t want her to think you are in the same boat. You must let her know you have a deep feeling everything is going to turn out great for you, so here’s how to admit you don’t relate to your friend’s fear of not achieving her dreams.
Set a Time and Date
Making a plan with your friend will keep you accountable when it comes to admitting the truth to her. Set a date and time so that you’re not able to back out at the last minute. Make sure you’re on time to your meeting, because your friend is about to find out a difficult truth: you actually don’t relate to her deep-seated fear of not succeeding and are sure it will all work out for you someday soon.
Meet One-on-One
When your friend voices her nagging fear that she may not actually ever reach her goals, try to avoid a group hangout so she feels comfortable speaking frankly. It obviously doesn’t make a difference to you, since you are so unbelievably confident in your career that you would shout it to a whole coffee shop, but this is a good way to show how supportive you are even though you definitely can’t relate to her at all!
Choose a Neutral Space
When you’re picking a place to have an emotionally vulnerable conversation, choose somewhere neutral. If you meet in your apartment, it could make your friend uncomfortable because you hold the power over her in that space. In the end, though, this doesn’t really matter, because you’re about to tell her that her fear of failure is something you’ve never felt before. You are actually so successful that you feel a looming sense of dread that you’re going to die in a private plane accident someday.
Maintain Eye Contact
As your friend shares her deepest fears and insecurities with you, make sure you’re maintaining eye contact. This will allow her to feel like you’re really hearing what she has to say, even though you can’t relate to a single iota of what she’s saying. This will make her feel safe, even though she really has no reason to be, since you are so mired in success that even seeing her face just makes you kind of confused?
Tell The Whole Truth
When it comes to telling your friend she’s alone in her doubts, be honest with her. It may be incredibly painful, but she needs to know that not only are you confident that she’ll fulfill her dreams someday, but you also know deep down you are already incredibly happy and artistically fulfilled and need no advice whatsoever. She has to know!
Use these tactics to let your friend know that her feelings are unique, and you’ve never felt like you won’t achieve your dreams. If she leaves upset, don’t worry. This is all part of the path that will inevitably get you to the success you are bound to experience!
