Be Effective Interpersonally (Part III)

Goal

To achieve objective, relationship, and self-respect effectiveness.

Self-Encouragement Reality Statements (Fulton State Hospital, p. 29)

These statements are meant to encourage you and shift your perspective about yourself and/or others:

1. It is OK to want or need something from someone else.
2. I have a choice to ask someone for what I want or need.
3. I can stand it if I don’t get what I want or need.
4. Someone saying “no” to my request doesn’t mean I should not have asked in the first place.
5. Standing up for myself over “small” things can be just as important as “big” things are to others.
6. I can insist upon my rights and still be a good person.
7. The fact that other people might not be assertive doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be.
8. I can understand and validate another person and still ask for what I want.
9. There is no law that says other people’s opinions are more valid than mine.
10. I may want to please people I care about, but I don’t have to please them all the time.
11. Giving, giving, giving is not the be-all of life. I am an important person in this world, too.
12. If I refuse to do a favor for people, that doesn’t mean I don’t like them nor that I’m selfish.
13. I am under no obligation to say yes to people simply because they ask a favor of me.
14. If I say no to people and they get angry, that does not mean that I should have said yes.
15. I can still feel good about myself, even though someone else is annoyed with me.

Learn more about interpersonal effectiveness by watching the following video: