The holiday season is upon us, and with it the time honored tradition of loose, absent and degenerating boundaries. Where boundaries are concerned, it is the time when we are most likely to lose our way.
If you start to feel your boundaries loosen, remember:
Everyone will have an opinion about your life challenges--your career move, divorce, or life change. Everyone. Your in-laws, your ex, your friends, and your colleagues. Most--probably 90%--of what they say is about themselves: their hopes, dreams, and fears.
You are the only expert on your life.
Hold what others say lightly--and trust yourself. Consider others’ viewpoints, if helpful, then exhale what is not useful.
Our saying at home is, “we can only own what happens within these four walls.”
Take time to know your boundaries, hold them, use them actively to sort out what is yours, what is not yours, and “invest” accordingly. When we are in active times of challenge and change, people will want to give us their crap. Don’t take it. It’s not yours. Don’t be an “other people’s crap” taker.
KNOW, BELIEVE you have everything it takes to get through this time, and hold onto the power that comes with that knowledge. Don’t give yourself away.
You have a right to your boundaries in every season. If you can hold securely to them in this season, the rest of the year should be a boundary managing breeze.
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Corey Jamison brings more than 30 years of experience partnering with executives and teams around the globe to drive dramatic, sustainable organizational transformation. She has worked with leaders at all levels of some of the largest brands, and offers a level of experience, acumen, partnership and courage that inspires leaders and teams toward the hard work of taking it to the next level.