Last Thursday I made a new post on LinkedIn, all about over-thinking and how to find a quieter mind.

My posts have been doing well recently.  1,000+ impressions, plenty of comments, and the occasional repost or DM.

So I was expecting this post to follow that trend.

But an hour after making the post it only had 8 impressions.  And not a single person had commented.

I was surprised.  Why was the post falling short compared to some of my previous posts?

I started to fear the worst.  What had I done wrong?

Was the post littered with typos?  Was it overly complicated?  Had I unintentionally made a big faux pas or caused some sort of offense?

I read the post again from top to bottom, and I couldn’t see anything wrong.

I was still baffled. 

But rather than dwell on it, I decided to get on with my day.

Fast forward to yesterday, and I’m scrolling on LinkedIn again, checking in with my favourite creators and keeping my eyes peeled for unsuspecting future clients.

And that’s when I saw it.

A different post popped up on my LinkedIn feed and instantly grabbed my attention.

And as I read the post, everything became clear.

Turns out that the smarty-pants at LinkedIn had been busy updating the LinkedIn algorithm last week.

And the algo changes had caused all sorts of chaos, including who could see what post.

Ah!

It all made sense now.

The lack of engagement had nothing to do with me or my post.  Instead, it was down to LinkedIn making a pig’s ear of a system update.

And this struck me as a great example of a well-known principle.

Which is this:

We humans have a tendency to over-personalise events.

We brush past a colleague in the corridor at work and they give us a curt “hello”…

Or we text a buddy and they don’t respond…

Or a friend or family member looks a bit down in the dumps…

And our minds jump straight to thinking “what did I do wrong here?”.  

We pin the blame on ourselves and make up stories that we’re somehow responsible or guilty.  And sometimes these stories can even cause us to start feeling gloomy and glum.

But the truth is…

99% of the time, explanations for events have nothing to do with us. 

Instead, they have everything to do with other factors we can’t even see.

We are at not the centre of the universe (even though it looks like we are!) and I think it does us well to keep this in mind.

Doing so can keep some of those negative emotions in check…

And ultimately lead to a more enjoyable life.

That’s all for today. 

 - Tom

p.s. if you’re on LinkedIn, come give me a follow and say hi:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/itstomgrundy