A500.2.3.RB - Tell Your Story

Two standards that are most important in my life are rather or not something is effective, and rather or not it is beneficial to me. In other words, in terms of effectiveness, will this course of action yield a level of success that I am comfortable with, with the least amount of effort required? In terms of being beneficial to me, even if my critical thinking or actions are to help someone else, I often ask, “in what ways can this benefit me?”.

For example, I manage an educational program that uses part time teachers, and a contracted aid. The financing party of this educational program is a multi-million dollar and full-staffed non-profit. When planning to develop the program and devising working plans, I take a moment and filter my thoughts and plans through those two standards; is this an effective way to think or work given the staffing and limitations present? How will thinking or moving in this direction benefit me (or the program)? It is likened to chess, wanting to capture the most amount of enemy pieces with the fewest amount of moves possible.

I believed I acquired these standards out of necessity. Though I am the youngest of seven children, due to age gaps, I was raised almost like an only child. The difference is that my parents were often busy taking care of my older siblings, leaving me mostly to take care of my own social and familial needs. Having limited resources and limited access to my parents, I had to plan my request and actions wisely as to be most effective. The standard of “does it benefit me” was one that I believe I acquired during my time in the military. At the age of 18, new to structure, organization, and a re-enforcing of the idea of being one of many and nearly forgotten, I quickly learned that no one had my best interest at heart. With this underlying truth as a pillar in my newly entered adulthood, having my own best interest at heart became a staple in all of my decision making.

Over the years, I can still identify these standards as I think and in my decision making. They have changed, however. My need to be effective no longer comes at the expense of inconveniencing others. My desire to make decisions that benefit myself is secondary to aiding someone else. While these two standards are still most important, I have learned to make them secondary, at times, for the sake of someone else’s well-being.