5 Strategies to Stand Up For Yourself

POWERFUL LIVING, POWERFUL YOU This Week's Topic: 5 Strategies to Stand Up For Yourself! Links Margaret's Website More About Margaret Coaching Teleclasses Margaret's Writing Margaret in the News Join Our Mailing List Join LinkedIn Network of Friends Link to Margaret's Blog In the News & Upcoming Events Welcome to our new subscribers! You inspire me to keep writing. Please keep forwarding the newsletter along. Thank you for sharing this column with your friends around the world. Article in College Connection Magzine a publication of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Navigating change: a roadmap to independence" Ignite Your Fire - 8 Week Challenge How is your eight week challenge going? You are two weeks in ... six weeks to go! Questions to Take Your Success to the Next Level What are your successes? What is working? What isn't working? What adjustments do you need to make? How are you and your buddy best supporting each other? Take time to answer these questions to take your success forward another week and to the next level! This Week's Topic: 5 Strategies to Stand Up For Yourself Dear Friend, "The soul that is within me no man can degrade." ~Fredrick Douglas~ Do you have a hard time standing up for yourself? Do you continue to say 'yes' when you really want to say 'no'? Do you tolerate condescending comments or forceful people because you fear conflict? Do you take things personally? Then keep reading...this week is for you! This week, we are focusing on an area where many of us struggle - at work, at home, with family, with friends, with colleagues - standing up for ourselves! Standing up for yourself isn't about being right, it isn't about soothing your ego, and it isn't about dominating. What is standing up for yourself about? According to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, standing up for yourself is righting a "grave injustice." If your first inclination is, grave injustice, this isn't what is happening to me, read on. I want to expand on this - a grave injustice occurs when your voice is quashed, when your being is minimized, or your existence marginalized. Your being and your voice is a true gift from God. A gem for this world, and no one ... yes, no one has the right to minimize you. When we fail to stand up for ourselves, we teach our bosses, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, colleagues and friends we don't deserve to be heard. And, what they learn is one of two things: they can continue to press down upon us or worse yet, that they, too, don't deserve a voice. Let's look at 5 strategies to help you reconnect with your voice and stand up for yourself: 1) Strengthen Your Backbone The foundation or sturdiest part of anything is the backbone. How is your backbone? In order to know your backbone, you must know yourself. And to know yourself, is to accept yourself and value yourself. 2) Learn to Say No! Often saying 'no' to others is saying 'yes' to yourself. We need to reframe what no means to us. As children we are taught that no is a bad word, as adults we must learn that often saying no means holding firm to that which we most believe. 3) Draw Boundaries We each need personal boundaries around important activities in our life. Think about what is important to you that has slipped from your life. What are you not able to do for yourself because of others demands? Where necessary, draw boundaries around your activities and your time. 4) Stop Saying "I'm Sorry" Often we can fall into the trap of saying, "I'm sorry" to keep the peace and defer conflict. If you are in the wrong, of course apologize, however, if you aren't in the wrong hold off the apology. Saying nothing and allowing things to just be can help others realize the impact of their words and actions. 5) Hold Up a Mirror When someone continues to push down on you and minimize you and it becomes apparent your silence has no impact,you must speak up! As you speak up, state the facts and remove the emotion. As you begin to speak up, feel the power of your own voice. Hold up a mirror to those around you; let them clearly see the impact of their words and actions. If you aren't able to get through bring in a mediator. Make It Happen This week pay careful attention to how you treat those around you and how you are treated. Be watchful if you begin to minimize people in your life, change course immediately. On the corollary, observe how you are treated. Do you run from confrontation? Employ the 5 Strategies above to Stand Up for Yourself! Be proud and be strong! Own your power! To ensure you receive our newsletter each week, add Margaret@MargaretPundmann.com to your address book or your approved list of senders. Blessings to you, Margaret. P.S. Encourage your friends, family, and colleagues by sharing this newsletter with them and invite them to subscribe! Direct them to www.MargaretPundmann.com where they can sign up. Margaret Pundmann is a life and business coach, speaker, and author of numerous articles on living your most powerful life. Stay tuned, Margaret's first book for emerging women will be available for pre-order in the coming weeks. Please feel free to forward the "Powerful Living, Powerful You" newsletter to friends and colleagues, but please forward in its entirety. The "Powerful Living, Powerful You" newsletter is written and distributed by Emerge Enterprise. Copyright © 2008 Margaret Pundmann. All rights reserved.www.MargaretPundmann.com.

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