I learn a lot about a lot of things in life from my dog. his name is Ruffus and we rescued each other. he was abandoned on the beach in the Dominican Republic and needed a family and a home and well I didn’t know it but I needed a dog.
At this time of year, lots of folks, including me have high hopes for the New Year. we make resolutions, set goals, and see a better life in the coming year. Whether it is losing weight, getting fit, writing a book, decluttering the house, whatever it is, change is involved. We are either going to start doing something we haven’t been doing or stop doing something we have been doing or both. we are going to change our behavior.
Along the way to changing and getting the lives we want, we are going to run into obstacles. We need to recognize and acknowledge the obstacles in order to continue on our path to change. One of the biggest obstacles that I encounter both in my own life and in the lives of my clients is boundaries. Setting up strong boundaries protects our time, energy, space, and money when others try to step over them. I am thinking of one of my clients who wants to grow her own business but a neighbor would drop in each evening to chat, for hours, and finally bleary eyed my client would head to bed exhausted, frustrated, and no further ahead with her business building.
This is where what I learn from my dog starts to come in. I have observed that he is not a fan of being sniffed in certain ways by some dogs. So when a dog steps over this boundary Ruffus signals, this is not OK. He does it by standing perfectly still and not engaging with the offending sniffer. I’d say 9.5 times out of ten the other dog gets the message and moves on. Ruffus has protected his boundary.
So how do we protect our time, energy, space, and money when others knowingly or unknowingly try to step into our time, energy, space, or money?
Ruffus knows he doesn’t like to be sniffed a certain way. So the first step to protecting your time, space, energy, and money is to know what you want and need. Listen, if you say want to write a book, sit and figure out what gets in your way. Is it being interrupted? Is it doing for others? Be honest with yourself. Is it your phone or Social Media? Just sit and become very clear on what is it that you want and need.
Next time we will look into what boundaries need to be set and how to do it.
Until then,
Coach Susy
PS. Coaching can help with boundaries Here is a link to my Coaching Packages