Don’t Hide from Your Flaws: Manage Them and Go for Your Goals!

This morning I was completing paperwork for a company. I wrote down all my questions and organized myself before I called the representative. Later, a couple more questions came up, and I found myself calling not one, but three more times within the hour.

I felt bad every time I called the representative after the initial call. I didn’t want to bother her. “I should have resolved all this on the first call!” I thought to myself. “I am annoying her.”

Currently, I am considering working in a job that is part office administrator (in addition to continuing to cultivate my nutrition private practice). I realized that if I felt this self-conscious over making a few calls to the company representative this morning, I would not enjoy being an office administrator. I need to be more confident in what I do. Be organized, yes, but forgive myself when I have to call somebody back for clarification. And I also need to have the courage to cold call people when necessary and not take their responses personally. That’s the crux of it all—not taking things personally!

I could be a great office administrator. I am dynamic, intelligent, and extroverted. I like working with people and I love making connections. But I can also fall into certain pitfalls, including taking things personally when they are not. For example, I call someone and their tone of voice is less than enthusiastic—it doesn’t mean they dislike me, a host of things can be going on in their lives that impact how they are feeling at that very moment. Other related pitfalls are: feeling bad for “bothering” people, lack of confidence in asserting myself, and thinking the worst in unknown situations.

If I could simply be mindful of my tendencies toward these unconstructive, unhealthy mentalities, I can keep them in check, and thus be a very effective and well-liked office administrator.

Nobody is perfect, we all have our flaws—we are human after all. But our faults shouldn’t hold us back from achieving our goals. Rather, we can manage them and be mindful of them. And with self-compassion, dedicate ourselves to working on these traits and growing to become even better versions of ourselves.