Day 12- Recovering Jerk

In Chapter 24, Pausch talks about being a recovering jerk. He didn't realize he was a jerk until one of his professors pointed it out to him. He decided to pay it forward and have his students peer review each other during group work. He had three questions he would have the students answer, and then he would produce a bar graph ranking the students from the easiest to get along with to the hardest. One question was:

(3) Did his peers find it easy or hard to work with him? Was he a team player?

What your peers think is, by definition, an accurate assessment of how easy you are to work with.

As I read this chapter I wondered how I would be evaluated. Would my peers find me easy to work with? Would I be able to handle the feedback if it were negative? Although it would be hard to take, it would be nice to do an assessment of myself including responses from all of my previous coworkers. I think I know what they would say, here is my guess.

Heather is loud. She is opinionated. Has a lot of good ideas, but can be bossy with them. She can get her feelings hurt easily and take criticism personally. She should understand that her way isn't the only right way to do things. She tends to be too casual sometimes, almost unprofessional. She is also enthusiastic and a hard worker. She is smart and does not want to fail. She's funny.

I initially started out writing all of the bad things I do, but I had to throw a few good things in there as well- after all, Lentspiration is about being more positive in life :)

Today I will focus on those things that I need to work on. In all honesty, I do believe I know what they are.

-God, One of my biggest fears is that when I die, I won't be missed. Please help me to be the kind of person that people will miss, the kind of person people love and want to be around. Please help me to make others feel valuable and to not push their buttons. Everyone deserves to feel listened to and appreciated, may I learn to do this in all avenues of my life. Amen.