I really connected to the motivation and communication articles for this session. I connected with the motivation articles in context of my experiences at work and the communications articles, in particular the Weeks’ excerpt, in regards to my own personal tendencies. I noticed a lot of things while reading these articles and observing the events taking place around me. I really started to think about how these things not only affected where I work, but how they come into play in the various areas in my life. I learned a lot of about some of the past experiences I had while in organizations in college; and think it would be beneficial to share some of these …show more content…
When I read this article I identified completely with it; not so much in the present tense, but I know that I am still working really hard to be less afraid to confront certain things head on. I’m pretty easy going but there are certain areas i.e. blatant disrespect towards others and disregard for the well-being for those around you, which irritates me enough to speak up. Interestingly enough, I am more apt to speak up for someone else (sooner) than for myself; strange I know. “But even more than fear, anger is hard on our reputation and our relationships, because anger usually looks and feels like unwarranted aggression to our counterparts…The needs to maintain self-respect may be more central to the personality than it is widely believed: We are built to be status protecting organism” (Weeks, 2008). When I read that section of the excerpt there were so many light bulbs and whistles going off inside my mind, because that is irrefutably me. I avoid situations that will push me to actually get angry, which is a pretty hard thing to do, because I know that even if I’m ‘justified’ it will cause a shift in opinions about me. What is interesting, is I wouldn’t consider myself to be concerned with others to think but when I read this I realized I am; I don’t want to be viewed as wrathful or ‘overemotional’. Which makes me wonder, if you are really good at containing your emotions for the most part; when you do have a moment where you just can’t contain it all, what happens? Do your counterparts really think all of the awful things about you that you fear, or is it all in our heads? “For some of us, temperament and our history with difficult conversations make the way we handle them seem right to us” (Weeks, 2008). While remaining silent does cause the person who is bothered some discomfort, the excerpt also discusses how we are somewhat