Some of us are born to please others. It’s true. There are people out there, I know I’m not the only one, who make it a goal to please everyone. It leaves us defeated if we can’t reach our goal with everyone we are surrounded by and, to be honest, it is extremely exhausting. For thirty years I’ve been living my life attempting to please everyone around me and it’s taken me this long to realize that there are some people out there that I will never please no matter how hard I try.
I hate to say it, but I’m fairly positive some of the people that I’ll never be able to please are related to me. That’s a story for a therapist some day if they have an entire week on their calendar to pencil me in for. For as long as I can remember I’ve been a people pleaser and have gone out of my way to not let people down. I do it with family, friends, and even within my relationships. Once you’ve spent most of your life worrying more about what makes others happy instead of what it takes to make you happy it becomes a habit that is almost impossible to break. It’s definitely something that I still continue to struggle with today, but at least I now recognize that it is something I do so that I can address it.
Those aside, it can be difficult to remember at work that sometimes you just can’t please everyone. At the end of the day it’s important to know that you did what was right, even if it didn’t please everyone that you work with. As long as you did what you know deep down was right then you’ve made the correct decision for the situation at hand, the people involved, and the company that you represent. Take the time to take a step back, fully evaluate the situation you’re in, and then proceed forward to make sure you’re making the best decision and not just the one that will please people. If the best decision proves to be the one that pleases the most people as well then count yourself lucky for being able to kill two birds with one stone!