Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Role Modeling

Because my primary male role-model was unreliable, volatile, inconsistent, and weak, I didn’t trust him.  I learned that promises were made and never kept so talk was just talk.  I learned safety was a foreign concept and I was easily the sacrificial lamb.  And I learned that one’s wants were an acceptable substitute for needs.

In short, I learned not to trust.

What I didn’t realize until more recently was that my lack of trust was/is more heavily applied to men.  I find that at times, I am less generous with the benefit of the doubt for men.

Even though I have had a consistent, long-term male role model for the last 30 years, I realized I was being less generous with grace because of my early childhood history.

I’m now working to try and recogniz3e when I am being less gracious to male influences.  For example, I will likely need to be a little more thoughtful when evaluating political leader’s actions.  Instead of quickly discounting a policy or initiative, I’ll need to likely consider it more carefully.

By the same token, I’ve tended to give exceptional grace to female leaders.  So, I still need to thoughtfully consider my perspective regardless, to assure I am not being too generous.

So, overall, my lesson is self-awareness.  Before doing anything or making a decision, I need to critically evaluate the merits of the opportunity/activity and not allow the leadership to influence my leanings one way or another.


No comments:

Post a Comment