From the horse's mouth

A=evaluator, appraisor
Royal Blood=subject, sole protagonist

LOCATION 1
A: okay, Royal Blood. As compared to your previous session, you've done a much better job. But i'll just write down that you've reached a reasonable standard.

Royal Blood: thank you Mr A. I appreciate your help and I endeavour to perform better than today.

A: if there's nothing, i wish you all the best and hope to see you soon.

Royal Blood swallowed a lump of pride, feeling a great entropy from within. He's a character who knows he's done well but for some reason wasn't handsomely congratulated during the evaluation. If diplomacy is in deficiency, or perhaps honesty which may shadow disrespect was Royal Blood's approach, he would have demanded for a more decent recognition of the tasks performed.

(Zoom back a few years)
Back then, Royal Blood is a horseman's horse. He's a natural talent. Give him any jockeys, and he'll adapt. Sign him up for equestrians, he'll win it. Enrol him for a game of polo, his rider will be the top scorer. He had never tasted defeat. Never failed, never lost in a sport. Life seemed a tad too rosy, a little bit too much.

Royal Blood's highlight of excellence was the presentation of the "Horse of the Decade". A horse of clear goals, he worked hard for it and earned it. His owner was proud of him. It was his way of returning his owner a favor. He described the moment as the apex of his achievements. The promise of a good career, the security of a contract, Royal Blood has a great future ahead. He's very confident of his own abilities and knows that he's able to adapt to the challenges and demands of what waits upon him.

Back to LOCATION 1
The session has ended. Royal Blood packed his bag and deliberated towards his home, reflecting upon his unhappiness. He wondered what has happened to the talented Royal Blood that everyone knows. He just can't accept the fact that someone else thinks he's not good enough. He felt that he's being shortchanged. Unlike his heyday, he have to now work much harder to be considered good, or even a miserly "reasonable standard".

The reason, according to him, as to why he wasn't able to perform to his best standard is his environment. There are some entities that disallow him from doing what he's best at, that is, focussing on the most important task of a job, getting it done right. Things will be much easier if there is a good amount of cooperation between colleagues, helping one another to better their standards. In this case, he's trapped in a worry spiral all along. The major mistake is that he worried too much about his colleague, who's weak and need help. In doing so, he subconciously burdend himself instead of focussing on the right track.

Come evaluation day, he noticed the slide in his colleague's performance who continued to gallop in an awkward fashion. This opened the floodgates for Mr A, the chief horse evaluator, to safely assume that Royal Blood is as unprepared as that. True enough, when it was his turn to parade his stuffs, the slightest of mistakes was projected and magnified. He don't know if the evaluator was doing that so as not to appear bias against his colleague, in the name of unbiassed judging. But this is not fair towards Royal Blood who feels that he deserved a much better scoring as he continued to gallop gracefully only to be given average scores.

Deep in his heart, he felt disappointed for the work that he has put in for the evaluation. Mr A don't need to know he's won the "Horse of the Decade" award. Mr A will know one if he sees one. And to bring such things to Mr A's attention tantamount to rudeness. He'll just have to accept that life's no longer perfect. The amount of work that you put in may not result in the amount you like to see. This story brings out the true character in a person. In times of goodness and pourover success, we rest on our laurels. In times of badness and desperation, we see our true colors. And the ones who surface in bad times are the real characters of the show.

(Adapted from a friend's blog.)