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| gopixpic.com |
I HAD a brief internal struggle with something recently. Nothing too major, life altering or important
but for me it was the principle of the thing.
I was caught up in a will I or won’t I debacle? I knew I should
and that I’d be raging with myself if I didn’t.
But at the same time I was fearful of appearing greedy and needy.
So I let it sit for a while and mulled it over. I have a habit of acting on impulse. I get a message from someone and I answer
immediately – “that sounds great! Let’s
do that.” Or “sure, I can do that,” and
then discover it doesn’t suit either me or my timetable and I’m suddenly caught
up in something that morphs from something enjoyable and into a complete stress
fest.
So I try to rein myself in a little. And I’m glad I did because I managed to
compose a short, to the point request without appearing whingey, needy or “gimmie
goddammit” and sat back to see what the response would be.
I suppose I should explain a bit. I’ve been working at something
for a while now and it has, for the most part, been positively received but
with no real [monetary] value placed on it.
For me anyway.
That had always been the understanding between parties and
initially I was okay with that. We all
have to start somewhere.
Then things picked up a notch and in times of drought, I was
asked to contribute a bit more. I was
pleased to have been asked. I can
deliver. I’m good at meeting deadlines
and I enjoy it.
But it started to rankle.
A little at first and then a lot.
If I can come up with the goods at the last minute (and
before deadline) surely I’ve proved my worth.
So I took the bull by the horns, gently, sent off that
message and waited.
Guess what? I got a
lovely and favourable response that made me very very glad I had stuck my neck
out there, took the bull by the horns and just went for it.
If you don’t ask you won’t get, as the saying goes.
So I asked and I got.
Not a lot but it’s still more than I had in the first place.
And it has also given me a little boost and encouraged me to
quit the quitting thoughts and keep going for another while.
That in itself has to be something.
