{"id":12247,"date":"2022-12-02T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T16:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therealdaily.com\/?p=12247"},"modified":"2022-11-30T01:11:13","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T07:11:13","slug":"assertive-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/editorials\/assertive-work\/","title":{"rendered":"How to set healthy boundaries over the holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Merriam-Webster defines assertive as \u201cdisposed to or characterized by bold or confident statements and behavior.\u201d I believe assertive behavior is the balance between being passive or aggressive.<\/p>\n<p>You aren\u2019t demanding, but you\u2019re not dismissing your needs either.<\/p>\n<p>Women are often told that they need <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inc.com\/lolly-daskal\/7-powerful-habits-that-make-you-more-assertive.html\">to be more assertive<\/a>, rather than passive, and men need to be less aggressive. I\u2019m more of the opinion that assertiveness isn\u2019t gender-specific. I believe every person needs some assertiveness training.<\/p>\n<p>While I may not be an expert in assertiveness, as a freelancer, I have learned to be more assertive. Here are a few of my observations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To be assertive, I had to stop feeling as if my work was unimportant. Call it <a href=\"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/real-estate-brokers\/leadership-tips-well\/\">confidence<\/a> or self-esteem, but it was a definite turning point for me. I stopped using the word, \u201cjust.\u201d I didn\u2019t apologize for bothering people. I simply began stating what I needed to get the job done.<\/li>\n<li>I defined what assertive meant to me. For me, it was the ability to stand up for my opinions and needs. This didn\u2019t happen overnight, but it took practice. One of the key things I did was to try and be more assertive in other places, like when I volunteered. That gave me the confidence to stand up for myself in my work.<\/li>\n<li>I use \u201cI\u201d statements. \u201cI need to take next Monday off.\u201d \u201cI need more information about this project.\u201d \u201cI cannot do that this week.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>I\u2019ve found that part of being assertive is taking the other person at their word and not holding a grudge. Don\u2019t read more into their emotions than what is being discussed. Just because my co-worker hated the last idea I had shouldn\u2019t stop me from exploring new ideas with the team.<\/li>\n<li>It is very difficult to change old behaviors. I have mentors and coaches that I talk to about my successes and failures. This has helped me figure out what I\u2019d do differently if I had the chance. Trust me, it isn\u2019t easy to be introspective about the time you blew it, but it\u2019s been very beneficial in all the areas of my life.<\/li>\n<li>I\u2019ve apologized when it was appropriate, but I don\u2019t beat myself up, either. The other day, I missed one part of an assignment. In the past, I would have not taken any more assignments as punishment. Instead, I apologized that I missed it and fixed the assignment. Then, I took another block of work and moved on. It was freeing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Being assertive isn\u2019t easy. But it is very rewarding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being assertive is not the same as being bossy and while most people tell women to be more assertive, lack of assertiveness isn&#8217;t gender exclusive. Here are a few tips how to make your presence known.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337267,"featured_media":19395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[1670,683,2169,1234],"class_list":["post-12247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","tag-assertive","tag-business","tag-confidence-building","tag-real-estate-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/09\/Person-on-phone-hiring-influencer.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337267"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12247"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20169,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12247\/revisions\/20169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}