Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Pay Yourself First Includes Praise

Pay yourself first must include encouragement, compliments, praise, admiration, empathy, sympathy and appreciation. I have (and I think most humans have) a tape loop in my brain that plays the list of flaws and shortcomings I've accumulated through the years. My parents, teachers, peers, spouses, bosses started it, and I took over the DJ job. I try to stop, but addiction to bludgeoning myself with scant praise is tough. "Hello, my name is Linda R. and I'm addicted to shortchanging me." One supervisor, during my performance review, kept hovering her pencil over the checkboxes, eyes glinting, asking "development opportunity?" Well, sure. After the 10th box, I said NO. I'm satisfactory. What I'm developing now is the free will to tell myself so all the livelong day. And then I can exceed expectations.

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