At a traffic stop on my morning commute, strains of music coming from the car stereo took me back a few year. Well! more than a few years. For some strange reason incidents from a decade back when I was content to let people walk over me washed through my mind’s eye. I pressed the brake harder than necessary at the next light. Funny! I thought to myself and forced myself to relax.
I compared mental notes and smiled as I realized I had come a long way from being someone who was OK being stood up. Someone who apologized without reason. Someone who lacked a certain sense of self.
Walking away from a meeting when the other person was late by 10 minutes, I sped away on the highway feeling justified. It is about respecting yourself an inner voice muttered while half of me wondered if I did the right time. Letting the phone go to voicemail as I read my children, I forced myself to be still and finish what I was doing before returning the call at my leisure.
It is in the little things that I see the biggest changes. Self esteem has wrought big wonders. I smile easily and remain firm when I refuse to pick up an essay for a colleague’s brother that needed proof-reading and editing. My personal time is off-limits I say and expect to be understood.
If I did not put myself first who else will I wonder? I park and walk to my office in the nippy air feeling confident in my skin.
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