How are your boundaries?
How are your boundaries? I look at back at a time when I worked in agency land, and I realise I was not always great at setting them. Working a ridiculous amount of hours was normal and telling myself ‘ we’ve got loads on right now” …lasting for about 20 years it turns out : )
Boundaries are the one of the most important skills we have to get ahead in life, and in work. When we know what we want and need, and how to assert this comfortably, it can be transformative across our lives. Helping with confidence, avoiding overwhelm and reduce feelings of frustration and anxiety.
It takes some work to get these right and practice this every day but here’s some useful things to think about in fine-tuning yours :
- Get really clear are you on what you want, what’s ok and what’s not ok for you, your business, your work and for your quality standards in your relationships
- Communicate that in a generous, caring and firm way with those people around you
- Restate your boundary in a positive way when a line is crossed. Often people don’t intentionally cross our boundaries
- Think about in areas of your life where you are regularly not setting boundaries, what might be the reason for this be
- Start becoming aware of your rights, and where do you need to stop feeling you are responsible for other people’s problems and actions
- Practice saying no, without any explanation
- Remind yourself regularly you have the right to change your mind, make your own decisions, no matter who you are speaking to and dealing with
- Use boundary setting phrases like these in more challenging conversations “ I’m not comfortable with that “, “ not at this time” , “that doesn’t work for me”, “ that is not acceptable”, “ I am drawing the line at xxx “, “no”
So I challenge you to go away and start saying no without explanation to something today. And if you want any support with boundary setting to create greater confidence, less overwhelm and take positive steps to achieve what you want in work and life, drop me a message