Motivational Monday: Self-Respect

I recently had a great conversation with my Mother in Law about how people take on challenges they know they are not ready to handle. For example:

You work for a company. You do your best to be the best worker at the company, to make yourself known to the higher executives, to do your part in making the company better. The time comes for a promotion and they give it to you even though you have less experience but more time invested in the company. However, they want you to be trained by your co-worker who is more experienced and more knowledgeable. You and that person knows you are not ready to be in the new position, but you accept it anyway with all the new perks and hope to grow into it.

Certainly it happens to people all the time on the job and about 90% of people will take it because they think of the money and accolades they will get. But maturity tells us that we should 1. be real with ourselves 2. take on what we can handle and 3. be responsible and accountable.

My mother in law told me that this same situation happened to her on the job. She was up for a promotion in a new position that she wasn't yet ready for. Like the mature person I know, she turned it down and let the executives know that she wasn't ready to take on the new position and the responsibilities it had. The executives not only respected her for gracefully turning them down, but they continuously kept her in the loop for when something was available. But it wasn't solely about the respect her bosses gave her, it was about ensuring her priorities were in line and she maintained respect for herself.

Today's Motivational Monday quote is about self respect and responsibility...we all deserve it.

"The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs."
      -Joan Didion

The Unemployed [but Empowered] Entrepreneur