Who are you still trying to impress?

There is usually one person, and they are not always in the room.

A father who has been dead fifteen years. A teacher who wrote you off in front of the class. The lad at school who was better at everything. A manager from two jobs ago whose approval you are somehow still working towards.

You would not put it like that. You would call it standards, or taking a pride in the work, and some of it is exactly that. But there is a quieter question underneath — who is this for? — and it usually has a name attached.

One or two of them are worth it. One or two of them stopped thinking about you a very long time ago.

So — who are you still trying to impress?