We’ve all got our scripts memorized. “I’m good.” “Can’t complain.” “Living the dream.” “Hanging in there.” Pick your favorite. They’re all different ways of saying the same thing: I’m not going to burden you with the truth, and you’re not really asking for it anyway.
But here’s what gets me: when did we all agree to this? When did we decide that the only acceptable answer to “how are you?” is some version of “fine”?
I spent decades perfecting my performance. Working seventy-hour weeks, I’d tell people I was “keeping busy” when what I really meant was I was drowning. Coming home exhausted, I’d tell Donna I was “fine” when what I really meant was I didn’t have anything left to give. My kids would ask how work was, and I’d say “same old” when what I really meant was I was starting to forget why I was doing any of it.
The thing about performing okay for long enough is that you start to forget you’re performing. It becomes who you are. The mask becomes your face.
When the performance becomes your prison
Loneliness isn’t just about being alone. I learned that after I retired. Suddenly I had all this time, but I didn’t know how to use it. More importantly, I didn’t know how to stop performing.
Donna would ask how I was adjusting to retirement, and I’d give her the upbeat answer. My sons would check in, and I’d tell them everything was great. But I was lost. Without my work identity, without my routine, without my crew to shoot the breeze with, I didn’t know who I was.
The performance had become my prison. I’d spent so long telling everyone I was fine that I’d forgotten how to admit when I wasn’t.
You know what finally broke through? A buddy of mine called to check in. We’d worked together for years. Asked how I was doing. I started to give him the usual song and dance, but he stopped me. “No, I mean really. How are you doing?”
Something about the way he asked, like he had time, like he actually wanted to know, broke something open in me. I told him the truth. That I was struggling. That I felt useless. That I missed having somewhere to be in the morning.
You know what he said? “Yeah, me too.”
The cost of keeping it all locked up
I grew up in a time and place where men didn’t talk about feelings. You had a problem? You handled it. You were struggling? You pushed through. That’s just how it was.
My father never once told me he loved me. Not once. I knew he did: he showed up, he provided, he taught me things. But the words? They weren’t in his vocabulary. When he died, there were so many things left unsaid between us.
I swore I wouldn’t do that with my sons. But old habits die hard. For years, I was more drill sergeant than dad. I’d tell them what to do, how to do it, when to do it. But ask them how they were feeling? That wasn’t in my toolkit.
It took me way too long to realize they didn’t need another boss. They needed a father who could admit when he was scared, lonely, or just plain tired. They needed to see that it was okay to not be okay.
The first time I told Danny I loved him: really said it, not just grunted it in response to him saying it. He looked at me like I’d grown a second head. But then he smiled. “Love you too, Dad.”
Those three words were harder to say than anything I’d ever done on a job site. But they were also more important.
Breaking the cycle
Learning to be honest about how you’re really doing is like learning a new trade at sixty-six. It’s awkward, uncomfortable, and you’re going to screw it up a lot before you get it right.
But here’s what I’ve learned: people are starving for real connection. When you drop the act and tell someone the truth about how you’re doing, it gives them permission to do the same.
Last month, I ran into an old customer at the coffee shop. He asked how retirement was treating me. Old me would have said “great” and moved on. Instead, I told him the truth: that some days were good, some were hard, and I was still figuring it out.
You know what happened? We ended up talking for an hour. He told me about his divorce, his struggles with his kids, his fear of getting older. Real stuff. Human stuff. The kind of conversation that actually matters.
That’s the thing about the performance: it keeps everyone at arm’s length. It maintains the illusion that everyone else has it together while you’re the only one struggling. But that’s a lie. We’re all struggling with something. We’re all lonely sometimes. We’re all trying to figure it out.
That’s it
I’m not saying you need to spill your guts to the cashier at the grocery store. There’s a time and place for keeping it light.
But the performance answer is a reflex now. It leaves my mouth before I’ve even checked in with myself. And I’ve been doing it so long I’m not always sure what the true answer would be if I stopped to find it.
Maybe that’s the quiet tragedy of a life spent saying “I’m fine.” You build the cage one polite answer at a time, and by the time you notice the bars, you’ve forgotten you’re the one holding the key.
So here’s what I sit with, most mornings, coffee going cold in my hand: will I ever actually put it down?
