My mother's visit was splendid, pics on Facebook. She got to see my work, favorite places to go, and we even tried out a few new things I had on my list - eating at the Oasis and going to see Toy Story 3 at the Alamo Draft House (the movie was sooooo good! bring a tissue!). After she left, I had a crazy week at work entertaining TWO interns instead of one and in general it just being busy.
Last weekend was super fun! I helped my friend Dawn move and afterwards, we went to the lake and just chilled in the water. I LOVE THE LAKE. I might have to make it an official life goal of mine to either live in full-time or own a lakehouse. Certainly living in Austin has not helped to qualm this desire AT ALL. One of Dawn's friends was in town who was getting married in a month on the beach. Since her bridesmaids (and her, and her mom) won't be wearing shoes, she decided to make foot jewelry instead. And that's what we did. I think we started at around 2:00 pm and I left at 11:30 pm! It took awhile, but was still a good time. I definitely have a new respect for jewelry makers. Think about all that hard work next time you buy a necklace! :)
My roommate left for Scotland on Tuesday (for TWO weeks), leaving me in my house. Alone. Have I ever mentioned that I don't sleep well alone? All I need is to know that someone is in the other room, really. Even when living at my mother's house I wouldn't sleep well when she was gone. Sigh. I mentioned this to my coworkers and said, "Maybe I just need a man!" to which they replied, "Maybe just a dog? You don't have to pick up after them!"
Today was my Evaluation at work. It is special because the Evaluation comes only once a year and is the basis for your any raise you might get (I'm new to Adult Full-Time Job World, as you can see). It actually was really good. I was able to see how my employer views my work and also able to express goals and desires for the next year. In general, one area I need to work on is being more assertive. It conveys confidence and importance of the subject to the patient, and in turn results in higher compliance with treatment. Naturally I am very laid back. In addition, my self-confidence isn't very high. The result isn't necessarily a lackadaisical attitude about patient education but more a lack of urgency in getting the message across.
I just prefer to be nice. :)
So how do you become more assertive? Certainly there is an aspect of self-confidence in there, which is more of a personality trait and one that will take time to develop. I'm assuming assertiveness isn't the same as being mean or demanding. So what is it? And how does one become more assertive? Most of the time so far I've been focusing on getting all the answers right instead of communicating those answers in a way that motivates my patients to change. I'm still learning facts and information, so I can only hope that as my knowledge base increases, so will my confidence and therefore assertiveness in delivering my message.
Thoughts?
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