We’ve all been there before. Those times where we may owe someone money that we borrowed, a returned favor or just common courtesy for a good deed. Sometimes it’s easier to pay someone what we owe them (in money or deed) if we’re doing the paying. We feel like we’ve fulfilled our duty and the slate has been made clean. What happens though when we have our hands out waiting on what is rightfully due to us? It’s natural to feel a sense of entitlement when we go out of our way for someone. The bitter truth is we’ll hardly ever be fully appreciated or given all of our due accolades….no matter how much we really deserve them. And just like we feel there’s someone out there that needs to pay us what they owe, there’s someone else wanting the same thing from us.
Think about the last time you worked on a big project for work or school. You did all of the work but someone else gets to slap their name on it as “part of the group”. Since your individual efforts were not made to be public knowledge, everyone gets equal credit and your other group members share the recognition. In extreme cases, they even get the promotions or better grades that you seemed to be passed up for time and time again. Where’s the fairness in that? There isn’t any. These I O U slips just keep adding up.
Or what about your best friend/family member that usurps your whole day off from work running them around town because their car broke down. There’s nothing wrong with the act itself, but there is something wrong when they don’t even say thank you or better you….we owe it to them. WTH? Let me settle down before I get my blood pressure up. Contrary to popular belief, a simple thank you goes a long way. Money is not the cure-all for everything. And believe it or not, people can tell the difference when things are being done out of obligation or the pureness of our hearts.
It’s true that we all probably have a list of I O U’s in our back pocket. Some are valid and some we should throw in the trash if we really are honest with ourselves. We’ll never get everything we think we’re owed, let alone the things we really do deserve. Believe me, I truly believe in getting what you deserve. In fact, my whole purpose in writing this blog was due to a couple of instances where I was heated about some things that I thought I deserved. But then I realized that the bitterness of waiting on something someone else to recognize me wasn’t worth the headache. We owe it to ourselves to always put our best foot forward, hope for the best, prepare for the worst and always keep our heads up no matter what. We can’t fix what other people owe us, but regardless of whether they recognize it or not, it doesn’t change our value at all.
