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A story about being a people pleaser and taking on more than you can do because you can't say no. <\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"},"subContentId":"09a9e47e-09e4-44ca-8e77-c82b36d993ef"},"title":"Biting Off More Than I Can "Do" by Anonymous"},{"content":{"params":{"text":"

Throughout my undergraduate program and most of my life, I have always felt a need to please people. Whether that be through school, extra curriculars, or in life, I always felt a pressure that I had to always push myself to the absolute limit. This led me to often biting off more than I can \u201cdo\u201d. There were times when I would have two part time jobs, a full time school load, and a social life to maintain all at once. It felt like my head was going to explode. I would see others achieve so much, and often they were younger or had tougher obstacles to overcome than me. I would feel inadequate and pressured into joining tons of group activities, always on the go. Often, it would lead to me dropping a class, sometimes losing a few friends, or not putting in an appropriate effort where it really mattered. It was a real problem.<\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"},"subContentId":"4bb868a9-1189-4170-aaef-f9880ae8769f"},"title":"The Wicked Problem"},{"content":{"params":{"text":"

Last summer, through lots of self reflection and thought (the pandemic made this quite easy), I decided I needed to take a step back and stop joining so many things and saying yes without thinking twice. Through talking to my parents and a couple friends, they gave me a few suggestions on how I would do this. To start, I began to never say yes to anything off the bat. If it was something small, like a get together with a few friends I would still say yes, but if a friend invited me to join their intramural league, I would always give myself the night to sleep on the idea and then get back to them.<\/p>\n\n

By sharing my experiences, I realized that I was not the only one who felt this way. Through the pressures of social media these days and the toxic hustle culture that comes with it, many of my friends felt the same way. They too felt they constantly had to be \u201cbusy\u201d and always say yes to every opportunity that came their way. They, though, had solved their problem. I had not yet. The advice my friends and even professors gave me was personally life changing. Too often I had let people down by not putting in a considerable enough effort, or disappointed professors by handing in an assignment late.<\/p>\n\n

An example of this was when I was in my third year of university, a friend invited me to his cottage for the weekend. Normally, I would have jumped on the opportunity immediately, but instead I told him I would have to think about it for the weekend, and I\u2019m glad I did. I checked my calendar, looked at my due dates coming up, when I would be working next, and realized it would not be possible for me to go to my friend\u2019s cottage for the weekend. It just wasn\u2019t doable. I had three assignments due the next week, as well as two shifts at work. I would need to work harder than I ever had to make it work, and it just wasn\u2019t possible. In return, I politely had to decline the offer my friend had made me, and while it was difficult to do, I knew it was for the best. <\/p>\n\n

Moreover, another example of this was when an opportunity opened up for me to do research with a professor this summer. At this point I had already started a full time summer job, which was my first time getting experience in my field of interest. It was a great job, but it came with a lot of responsibility. Normally, when an opportunity like doing research with a professor arose I would jump on it immediately, but I knew I needed to take a step back and assess the situation. Realistically, I could do both. Do research in the evening, do my job throughout my day. Through past experiences though, I knew how that would end. I would start half-assing both jobs, and disappoint both my supervisor and my professor. I would try to cut corners often, and neither would be impressed. This was a difficult decision to make, but I followed the advice my friends and family had given me, and I had to decline the opportunity that my professor had offered me. It would have been fantastic doing both, but I knew it would not have ended well, and I would have been doing two jobs poorly instead of one job well. <\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"},"subContentId":"10ae3468-d1c0-4007-9282-d80c192dbe7a"},"title":"Finding a Solution"},{"content":{"params":{"text":"

Don\u2019t be ashamed to say no to people. Whether it be professors, family, or friends, biting off more than you can \u201cdo\u201d is a horrible feeling, and an even worse feeling than that is letting those people down. I once thought that I always had to be involved in a countless number of activities and jobs and classes, but there is such a thing as too much.<\/p>\n\n

Saying no to things is nothing to be ashamed of, everyone has a limit, and it is very important that you do not hit yours before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n\n

Don\u2019t bite off more than you can chew, because nobody looks attractive spitting it back out.<\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"},"subContentId":"9583d703-b0a7-4ab1-b928-1f0ee164ffe9"},"title":"Final Thoughts"},{"content":{"params":{"text":"

Biting Off More Than I Can \"Do.\"<\/em> (2021, October 6). Liberated Learners. <\/span>https:\/\/wicked.liberatedlearner.ca\/learner\/biting-off-more-than-i-can-do\/<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","subContentId":"d8e9e274-e3e3-40d6-8961-e5b66186ac08","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"}},"title":"APA Reference"}],"hTag":"h2"}

Biting Off More Than I Can "Do"

Liam Peart