Ep. 58 Stand Your Ground

In today's society, confrontation is looked at and encouraged from a victim standpoint. "They did (blank) to me/us! It's all their fault! We need to scream and yell to let them know that they're wrong!" Unpopular opinion - This is the WORST place to come from when approaching a confrontation. We get it though. Emotions kick in. You feel attacked, you're sick of it, and you have an uncontrollable urge (or so it seems) to let someone have a piece of your mind. We've ALL been there. Or maybe it's the opposite. You continue to avoid it, keep taking metaphorical punches, and never stand up for yourself and what you believe in. Whatever the case, there is a healthy way to deal with confrontation and get your point across clearly without a blow up.

Confrontation is inevitable. We can avoid it sometimes or a lot of the time, but it's impossible to avoid it our whole lives. No matter how long / how much you avoid it, it is GOING to happen at some point and to some extent. It's never fun. Sometimes it's harder than others - especially when it's with close friends or family. When it's someone we love and care for deeply. But that's when it's most necessary. We have to learn to work through it with a level headed and logical approach.

We aren't perfect by any means, and this is something we are both striving to get better at daily. It's something we, as leaders, HAVE to get good at in order to run a successful business, and to be leaders in our every day lives with our families and friends. We tend to let things slide until they become a big deal, at which point we dread the conversation because of the severity of the situation in our minds. Maybe we try to drop passive comments in hopes that the other person will catch on and fix it on their own. Or we try saying it in the nicest way possible, but we hold back and make it seem like it's not a big deal, and it never seems to get fixed. We spend hours or days going over the conversation with ourselves, all the while we are just building anxiety and/or justifying our emotions. At this point we feel like no matter what we say it's going to sound mean or harsh. We worry about how the other person will take it and how they will respond. Or maybe you don't. Maybe you truly don't care how the other person feels and you're going to tell them exactly how you feel with no consideration for how it might make them feel.

No matter which end you tend to lean towards, this is something the world as a whole can and needs to improve on. In this episode we take a deep dive into our experiences with confrontation, and the steps we take to become more comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Again, we know we lack BIG TIME in this area. We aren't saying that how we handle it is the right way (Thank God it's not!) but we are working each day, with each experience, to get better at communication so that we can avoid the blow ups and maintain the relationships that are most important to us.

We hope y'all get a lot of value out of this episode! We'd love to revisit this topic in the future! If anything we said spoke to you, gave you a "lightbulb moment," or if you have another way that you deal with confrontation, let us know and let's all learn from each other!

We love you guys, and we'll catch you on the next episode!