Be honest with yourself

We are faced with decisions every day of our lives. Some of us have the ability to consistently make the right decisions. For others it’s not so easy; sometimes external pressures have a greater influence on our decision making than what feels right to us, possibly leading us down the wrong path. I relate to the latter group and see similarities in some of the children I work with at Pride Lands.

I know first-hand how it feels like to be surrounded by mixed messages when it comes to making key life decisions. In my case, the messages related to education. On the one hand, you had family members who encouraged me to put in the effort at high school, and on the other hand you had other family members who repetitively told me that education wasn’t important and that I should just get a job. These mixed messages, the decisions I made, and the consequences of those decisions have had a profound effect on my life.

Working at Pride Lands, I have been able to reflect on my own childhood and adolescence and have been able to use my experiences as examples of poor decision making when I work with the children at Pride Lands. It wasn’t just education; I made many poor decisions in my life including turning down key opportunities by using very vague excuses. These excuses were more of a mental roadblock than a real problem that was affecting my ability to do the work involved in those opportunities.

Be honest with yourself. I wasn’t honest with myself when I was a teenager. This was another factor that negatively influenced my decision-making ability. In fact, this was the reason I didn’t achieve my goals in high school. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses will help you to determine realistic goals. On top of this, good time management is crucial to actually achieving the goals you set. You need to have clear limits on unimportant activities and measurable targets on your important goals in order to make sure you are on the right track.

So, the key message is: surround yourself with and listen to the right people, don’t use excuses to stop you from taking opportunities and be honest with yourself.

Marek