Pushing back when “you’re right”
It’s tricky to push back against something I disagree with or disapprove of. Especially when a part of me believes that my way is right.
It’s easy then to become rigid and unrelenting, pushing until I manage to get my way. That’s the right thing to do!
But that’s an incomplete picture, right? If I act like I know everything, I can run into a few problems:
- If I’m actually right, I run into resistance. Whoever I’m trying to convince digs in their heels more.
- Even if I’m right and they change, it might come at the cost of damage to the relationship.
- If I don’t have the full picture, and in fact have blindspots myself, then I might not be doing the right thing. I help no one but my ego.
It’s exactly when I feel that I’m in the right that I have to be careful and ask myself:
- Have I done the work to understand the other person’s perspective?
- What blindspots might I have?
- Am I speaking how I would want to be spoken to?
All this is not to say that we should avoid conflict and keep mum. I’m just wondering about a different way of doing things!