MGT 5045 – Organizational Behavior Alexis Lake | Best Self Assessment September 26, 2017 An Open Letter to Myself, My Best Self Do you remember me? Do you remember that confident, passionate, and bubbly young woman you once were? Well, guess what. It took the better part of year, but it looks like you’re coming back to your old self. Your best self. And even better, the people around you, the people you care the most about, like your husband, your brother, and your parents, see that best self, too. Even the experts, friends, classmates and former colleagues, who may have seen you at your worst, still find time to appreciate and reflect on what makes you your best self. But where did you go? It wasn’t all that long ago that you had the world at your feet. A young woman, fresh out the best communications school (at least in your humble opinion), set to take on the corporate world. You lived close by your family, reconnected with people from your past, cultivated new friendships, and even found time to stumble upon your soul mate at a Toastmasters meeting. Things were trending up, up, and up. But then the stress of your parents moving away, joining a new family, moving in with your fiancé (now husband), while taking on a new, very challenging role at work started to turn you into the worst version of yourself. You were traveling all the time, stressed, and never present in the moment. The people and things you loved fell not only to the wayside, but also all the way to the floor. And so did your confidence. Constant heat from the top, peppered with tight deadlines, as well as more than a few tablespoons of sexism and ageism, made you an exploding pressure pot.