March 8, 2008
Coping Strategies: at work or at home V
PROJECTION is the next coping strategy(just realizing that I entered VI before V – sorry about that). Projection is when you put your own faults on another person. A simple way to look at this is when a child gets benched during a hockey game because he/she wasn’t playing well. They blame the coach saying that the coach did not teach them the right things.
In this coping skill, one is not taking ownership of their actions. They have a temporary relief of not being at fault; however deep inside they know that they are to blame/ or to take credit for their actions. Another example, in the work place (let’s say a sales position) can be when a person’s sales are down. They start to point fingers at the customers or at the manufacturer, or their boss; one who projects rarely looks inward to see that maybe there is something they are doing or not doing that is holding their sales down and holding them back from climbing the success ladder.
An interesting test you can do with yourself is to stop and think about the areas in your life that you either complain about or are not happy with the status of. Examples could be a relationship, a business, a status, or even a level of productivity. Start to ask yourself what role you hold in this complaint or unhappiness. Look inward, instead of outward (projecting)… make a decision to be proactive and make changes with your new insight.
Projection can work well…. again like with most strategies – it is a temporary fix to a long term situation.
….. more coping strategies to come.
