I have a theory. There’s no scientific proof behind it, but it’s something that I’ve observed. Here it is. Are you ready?
I don’t think that a person can annoy themselves. Now I do think a person can get annoyed with their own actions. You say something dumb, you mess up at your job, you drop the ball and you get annoyed. But that is different then being annoying and knowing it.
A year ago I was hanging out with a group of people. I was having a blast. I was laughing, joking, and being thoroughly entertaining…or so I thought. When we left my wife, Monica, informed me that multiple people were annoyed with my behavior. In fact one person even said Rob has never annoyed me before but tonight he got on my nerves. I was clueless.
Because we can’t control other people’s feelings it’s impossible to annoy ourselves. I’ve been in many situations where an annoying person was at their best and they never stopped to say, “wow I’m a annoying.” It’s just a theory, but I’ve never experienced an annoying person who realized it.
This is an interesting observation. I have been around people who everyone treats with obvious and overt contempt because they are such annoying little creatures, however, they are completely obviously to their condition. In fact, the more annoying a person is, it seems the higher on the food chain they view themselves.
i often walk away from situations and feel like i said or did at least one annoying thing.
so glad i remembered that you have a blog… i'll be checking in daily. i love your humor & insight!
Hey Rob…I'm working on the Budget for next year and I want to go to a few conferences…I saw you went to a bunch on your blog…but I couldnt find the one I was looking for…you went to one in Atlanta maybe? Where you saw Chad Childress?
Can you tell me what thats called?
Thanks
Haha…sometimes annoying people will even argue with you that they aren't annoying. 🙂
I think sometimes you can tell when you've annoyed someone, at the time. You just have to pick up subtle, or sometimes not so subtle clues. Usually it's too late to remedy the situation (you've already been annoying) , which then causes you to be annoyed at yourself (as you describe in the second paragraph on this post).
Sometime people are annoying on purpose (think kids with siblings), so they know they are annoying.