Don’t Act Like Prey! A Woman's Guide to Self-Empowerment

By Susan L. Farrell

If you’re like many women, from birth you were taught to be passive. While the boys were being rowdy, we were taught to be quiet. While men could argue, we were told to avoid conflict. Be nice. Speak softly. Don’t make a fuss.

Now we’re adults, and we’ve discovered that passivity allows people to take advantage of us in both our personal and professional relationships. In response, some women adopt an aggressive stance. Unfortunately, that doesn’t usually work either.

If docility encourages disrespect and aggression makes us disrespectful, what choice is there? In "Don’t Act Like Prey!," author and women’s self-empowerment consultant Susan L. Farrell offers a third option: respectful assertiveness.

Drawing on the natural world and her personal life for examples, Farrell reveals how assertiveness strikes a balance between the passivity that characterizes prey and the aggression that is the mark of a predator. It is in this balance we find a way to stand up for ourselves without harming others or damaging relationships.

Written in clear, straightforward language, Don’t Act Like Prey! includes exercises to foster your growing sense of assertiveness. It’s time to abandon passivity without embracing aggression. It’s time for the empowerment that comes with assertiveness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan L. Farrell
• Release date: Jan 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9780988909052

Susan L. Farrell

Susan L. Farrell uses her love of learning to inspire women to learn about themselves. She urges them to empower themselves to achieve the lives they desire. Farrell draws upon her experiences as a leader, manager, consultant, coach, trainer, and teacher to provide ideas to encourage women to think about what they do, why they do it, and do they want to change. Farrell is the author of the series "A Woman’s Guide to Self-Empowerment." "3 Good Choices: Change It, Accept It, or Leave It" discusses how to make positive choices in all aspects of life. "52 Weeks of Wisdom, Volumes 1, 2, and 3" are designed to provide ideas to encourage women to empower themselves. "Don’t Act Like Prey!" discusses respectful assertiveness as an option to passive or aggressive behavior. For additional information, to order her products, and to subscribe to her e-newsletter and blog, go to SusanLFarrell.com.

Book preview

Don’t Act Like Prey!

Don’t Act Like Prey!

A Woman’s Guide To Self-Empowerment

Susan L. Farrell

SLF Publishing • Lebanon, WI

Copyright © 2015 by Susan L. Farrell. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. For permission, contact the author at [e-mail].

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

The purpose of this book is to encourage the reader to think about his or her actions and to make changes if he or she wants to do so. It is based primarily upon the author’s experiences. It is not intended to give advice. The author and SLF Publishing shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information contained in this book. If you do not wish to be bound by the above, you may contact the publisher for a full refund.

ISBN: 978-0-9889090-2-1

This book is possible because of the generous support of my husband, best friend, and the love of my life, Rick Gurka.

Thank you, Rick, for everything!

Contents

Preface

Welcome to the eBook

Foreword

Introduction

1. Wildlife

2. Rights and Respect

3. Relationships

4. Communication

5. Passive Behavior

6. Costs of Being Passive

7. Aggressive Behavior

8. Costs of Being Aggressive

9. Assertive Behavior

10. Benefits Of Being Assertive

Conclusion

Author’s Note

Acknowledgments

About The Author

What do you do?

Why do you do it?

Do you want to change?

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You have the power within you to become the person you want and to create the life you desire.

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Self-empowerment is giving yourself permission and taking responsibility to achieve it.

Welcome to the eBook

(Please Read This First)

Thank you for purchasing the electronic version of Don’t Act Like Prey! A Woman’s Guide To Self-Empowerment. As with many books, this one started as a hard copy. When I wrote it, I included tables throughout the book with the intent that the reader could write notes to help her interpret what the information meant to her and what she wanted to do to change.

That does not work so well with an eBook.

I have included the tables in the eBook so that you can see what they look like and where they appear. I recommend that you still use this as a workbook. To record your thoughts and the actions you want to take, you have two options.

You can recreate these tables in your own journal (hard copy or electronic). Or, you can go to my website, susanlfarrell.com and download them. As with everything else in life, the choice is yours.

Please notice that the tables in the eBook are numbered and that I refer to them by that number. If you download the tables from my website, they will be numbered. If you create your own, it will be helpful to number them the same as in the eBook.

I hope the information in this book encourages you to think about what you do, why you do it, and do you want to change related to passive, aggressive, and assertive behavior.

Foreword

Ironically, I was first introduced to this book when Ms. Farrell contacted me to request my input as a fact-checker on the material. Apparently, to her my status as a clinical psychologist warranted me a level of expertise to do this for her, which came as a pleasant surprise to me. Despite my advanced degree, I’ve never really felt like much of an expert on anything, other than perhaps an expert on negotiating my way through years and years of school, writing extensive research papers, incurring large amounts of student loan debt, and stretching a student loan budget to keep a roof over my head for longer than initially anticipated. As for the rest of my life, I have always been a bit of a Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none kind of person, most of it the result of insatiable curiosity and a relative lack of fear with regard to learning.

It was this fearlessness in learning that most influenced my choices in professional development. Currently I am a practicing clinical psychologist since the successful completion of my graduate training in 2005 and licensing examinations in 2009, although my