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Professor Patty Cake ® Career Hack #104- It's Okay to Say No Way and/or Not Stay and Walk Away!!

As promised, here is the blog post that I alluded to in last month's post. This month I am talking about "It's Okay to Say No Way and/or Not Stay and Walk Away!" If you are like me and many other individuals who went into the teaching profession, you gravitated toward such a career because you enjoyed school and excelled at it as a student. In many cases our desire to please and our perseverance are what drove us to succeed in our studies. We wanted to please our teachers and our families by achieving academic success, so we worked hard and stuck with it until we mastered the content presented to us. The desire to please and our ability to persevere, although helpful to us when we were students, can at times backfire on us when we become educators because it can often lead us to say "YES" to too much and/or stay in unhealthy professional environments out of guilt and/or a fear of failure.

We have worked with countless clients who seek our services after they have become overwhelmed and burnt out in their current positions. As we progress through the career coaching process, we often find that our clients are struggling with establishing boundaries and saying "No" to unreasonable demands and unrealistic expectations. When we discover this, we give our clients the tools to:

1) Reflect on their past behavior (i.e. Identify "Yes Person" behavior)
2) Empower them to make changes to their behavior (i.e. Just Say No!)
3) Monitor their behavior on a consistent basis to ensure they do not fall back into past behavior patterns. (i.e. Avoid the"Yes Person" Slide....it's electric boogie woogie woogie)

Most importantly, we help them break free from the notions that they must please everyone and/or stay in a position that are no longer a good fit for them. We also encourage them to give themselves permission to Say No Way and/or Not Stay and Walk Away

Not to sound cliche but essentially we give our clients the tools, as Kenny Rogers most famously sang, to know:

"When to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run" 
(The Gambler as sang by Kenny Rogers 1978, Written by Don Schlitz 1976)

Yes, I just quoted a golden oldie from Kenny Rogers, but in my defense these lyrics do still resonate today and to the topic of this post. It is important for all of us, whether we are an educator or not, to establish boundaries (hold'em) and give ourselves the permission to say "No Way"  (fold'em) when a request of us is too great/unrealistic etc. or to make the decision to "Not Stay and Walk Away" (walk away and run) when we find that our position is no longer a good fit for us.
To put it into perspective, the average employee will work 1875 hours/year. I think you will agree with me that is way too much time to spend miserable, overworked, and underappreciated. We can spend our careers in a constant state of burnout because we are always trying to please others or we can take action like our friend Kenny suggests, and know when to create/find professional situations that are the best fit for our lifestyles and conducive to our career goals. Ultimately, the choice is ours!


* Disclaimer: Neither I, nor Professor Patty Cake ® Consulting, L.L.C, advocate making professional changes without first thoroughly weighing the pros/cons of such actions. We recommend anyone contemplating boundary setting and/or career moves to think through the consequences that could arise as a result of such actions and make decisions that are best for their unique professional situations.

Intrigued by what you read here? Contact us today to learn more about our career coaching services and to connect with one of our certified career coaches!

Professor Patty Cake ® Consulting, L.L.C.
Empowering Educators; Improving Education 
1-866-932-4454
professorpattycake@gmail.com 




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