Chakras only!

[thefool]

There's an issue I encountered, yet again, as a willing violation of my personal boundaries. I wonder if this is a red ray issue.

My background involves work with custom computer applications - designing them, which I am very happy to do; and troubleshooting them, which I don't enjoy.
I know some things about computer system administration, but I'm not a professional Windows system administrator for a random assortment of consumer laptops, run by people who don't know what they're doing. And that's a role I don't want to have.
Yet I am frequently pushed into this role by people who won't take "no" for an answer. And that happened again today, taking hours that I would have preferred to read and write here.

I realized that I need to make some healthier rules in my life.
Might as well call them New Year's Resolutions, because astrologically the new year hasn't really started yet.

New year's resolutions:

I will not work on any other person's computer, if that person has not prepared a complete backup of any files they consider important. This rule applies no matter how anxiously the person insists that I work on their computer and also that I guarantee no file loss.

I will not make any attempt to take on the responsibilities of a system administrator for a computer which has the following issues.
On the software side: I did not get to set it up; it was not set up according to any particular plan; it has no documented baseline configuration or change log; it may or may not have any recovery or installation disk available; and it has executables commonly identified as malware.
On the hardware side: It is known to have a power supply problem and an overheating problem with no hardware diagnosis.
On the human side: The operator is unfamiliar with the basics of computer administration, such as the difference between the terms "download" and "install from CD-ROM."
No matter how anxiously I'm told that it's crucial I get some software to run on that machine, I will not try to substitute my time and effort for the absence of another person's adequate budget for their own professional needs.

Doing the work that violates my boundaries not only depletes my energy, it also has a serious risk that the other person's machine may become unusable in a way that I can't fix. This risk is typically dismissed as irrelevant unless it actually occurs, in which case I typically get addressed with fury that I let it happen. Fortunately, today's temporarily unusable machine was restored to functional condition, but at the cost of way too much stress for me.

This is red ray stuff, isn't it? The feeling of being pushed to deplete myself to overcome someone else's depletion, when I am not actually able to offer the help they seek?

I don't know what Chakra this corresponds to but have seen it happen over and over again to the NICE guys. Nice guys need to learn to manage their Boundaries. First set the boundary by defining something like a resolution and then stick to the boundary by learning to say NO. When the boundary set is violated the answer is a NO. Now it can be a nice NO but No is a No. Sometimes nice people are so busy trying to serve and help that they forget about themselves. If you detect uncomfortable-ness in your system then you are moving towards a NO. On the other hand the average manipulative Joe on the street knows how to take advantage of a nice guy. They will make you feel guilty (orange ray?), maybe insecure about losing their frienship etc (red ray?).

Actually this is not as straight forward as a lot of time you may not know what you are signing up for. And as you go deeper into the problem it just sucks your time. But there is a one rule you may want to keep in mind-

"Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."

Remember you are still doing a favor to the person and it should not turn into a problem of your own. You can chose to help them if you so desire but their monkey should remain on their own back, they should not transfer it to your back. A lot of time you are stuck with their problem and they are happily on to other pesuits. You can tell them that you could work on it but only after you finish your own X/ Y or Z and that you will not be panicking and drop everything to attend it. Or you can simply say NO. My feeling is that you would like to help them but it is the stress that they put on you that is the problem here...So manage the stress by setting boundaries, not panicking with them and learning to say No when necessary...