You may have heard that in order to succeed in your profession, you have to be aggressive and cut-throat. If you aren’t aggressive, you’re going to get played, not grow as fast as you should and miss out on professional
benefits.
This is one of the most controversial subjects while working in a job or if you have your own business.
To be honest with you. I used to be someone who believed in such ideas while I was working in my advertising job for ten years. I believed I had to be
aggressive, loud or else I wouldn’t be able to grow.
After ten years of working this way, I felt exhausted.. I felt that I was always looking over my shoulder, didn’t feel comfortable and always thought others were out to get me or do better than me.
If you’re asked a favor from a colleague at work, weigh your current workload and be able to say No if it makes you feel burdened. However, if you can do the favor go ahead and do it. Helping someone is always the right
thing to do.
The insight here is simple: be kinder with the people you work with. It's not just good karma (spiritually speaking) but it’ll make you feel good to do good things for others.
The disclaimer here is please don’t make yourself feel burdened/ sacrifice yourself while helping out a colleague.
There’s a thin line between being kind to others and hurting yourself. You have to be able to discern if the favor you’re being asked is genuine or manipulative. You’ll know the situation best. If it feels manipulative then trust that feeling and firmly say ‘no’.
I promise you saying ‘no’ doesn’t make you a bad person.
When you choose to be kind with someone you work with will not take away from your professional growth. Don’t allow insecure thoughts to make you feel small
and be unkind.
Trust that your growth depends on the work you put in, the skills you learn and you get to choose to feel good about the way you work and being kind to your peers and colleagues will make you enjoy your job more.
Having insecure thoughts or fear may be normal. My suggestion would be to not dwell on them. Like I said earlier, helping someone who’s genuinely in need is
always the right thing to do if you consider yourself to be a kind person.
Your professional growth and success will feel so much sweeter when you’re a kinder person.
Head over to the Insights to Action challenge to internalise this insight.