A personality in equilibrium June 24, 2012
Posted by mareserinitatis in career, societal commentary, work.Tags: collaboration, deadlines, teamwork
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Do you ever feel like you can’t win?
I am not the most on-the-ball person. I admit that I have trouble keeping up with things. On the other hand, I try to prioritize and make sure important things get done. But I always feel stuck in the middle.
For instance, there is someone who I would like to work with. She’s very smart and competent. She’s also very nasty and has little patience for people who can’t keep up with her. And if she thinks you’re flaky, it’s the death blow.
By her standards, I am sure that I’m flaky.
On the other hand, I hate working with flaky people myself. I sort of understand where she’s coming from because that’s how I feel about working with another person whom I consider flaky. He’s very easy-going and pleasant to be around. He also never gets things done and stresses me out beyond belief because of his failure to get anything done prior to 24 hours before a deadline. I’m sure that I come across as bad as my more competent coworker mentioned above whenever I have to deal with Mr. Flaky.
Between the two of them, I try to feel like I have the right balance of ‘let it go’ and ‘git ‘r done’. I’m not so high-strung/demanding/sarcastic that people hate dealing with me but I’m also more competent and on top of things than some other people I have to deal with. However, when I end up dealing with either extreme, I find myself leaning to the opposite extreme in response, and I don’t particularly enjoy it. I feel like I’m oscillating back and forth. Oscillating about an equilibrium point is not the same as having balance, and I really prefer that I have balance.
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Your reaction makes sense. You want to rebel to ideals that you will not adhere to more than you want to stay balanced. Staying strong in the face of adversary (balance) is a short term strategy. Opposing (oscillating) could be seen as a long term strategy to pull the person more towards your balance point. So you want internal balance but strive more for external balance.