I can’t say no. I am a people-pleaser, and it means that I burn myself out because I take on too much.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 August 2022 source ↗
The question
Which trait in yourself do you like least?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's The Q&A has retained this Proust-derived prompt from at least 2007 through 2026, and ABC independently put it to the Obamas in 2011.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I can’t say no. I am a people-pleaser, and it means that I burn myself out because I take on too much.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 August 2022 source ↗
Craving the kind of success I pretend to despise.
I have a child-like fear of being late. I’m a grown man, and I’m scared I’m going to the principal’s office.
Thinking that I’m right when I’m wrong. But not only that – being able to convince other people I’m right and then finding out I’m wrong.
Oversharing my personal life, but here we are, oversharing!
J-Lo, a foreign correspondent and, at uni, I assumed that someone would tap me on the shoulder and ask me to be in MI6, but it never happened.
As someone who had a laugh.
This sounds so silly, but I cry with happiness all the time. I cry when my flowers open!
I don’t like it when people manipulate your words, which sometimes happens in the tabloids.
When I was growing up, I thought quicksand was going to be a much bigger fear to contend with on a day‑to-day basis. It hasn’t proved to be a bother yet, but there’s still time.
My younger self. I told myself so often that I was not good enough, that I was not smart enough, that I was not interesting enough, that I was boring and ugly. I wasn’t kind to my body, and I did and said things to myself that I would never do or say to a friend.
Ed Harris, Chaka Khan, Judy Blume, Carrie Fisher, Jack Whitehall, Adele Parks
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