Much Respect (for yourself and others)

Maybe there are a few perks to getting older.

I had a conversation with someone today that was not, I suspect one either of us was particularly looking forward to. And I'm not sure either of us ended the conversation feeling like we got much accomplished other than a slightly better understanding of each others' position, and, in turn, how different they were. Certainly neither of us convinced the other of the wisdom of seeing it "our" way. And at times, the exchanges were a little tense, even bordering on adversarial.

But I walked away from it with a pretty good feeling. Here's why:

1. It wasn't really important that either of us was "right".

2. We needed to clarify our intentions going forward to determine what our arrangement would be in the future, and we did that.

3. What might have become an unnecessarily terse discussion, perhaps escalating to a level that we'd want to permanently end our association never happened.

4. I think we both walked away from it feeling proud of ourselves about how we each handled it.

So that's pretty good. I don't know that preserving dignity and respect for the other (and ultimately, myself, since we're all connected) would have been my primary concern five years ago, or even two. Even if it was, I don't think I would have had the discipline to make sure that happened. Releasing the ego-driven defensive urges as they surfaced was surprisingly easy once I made the commitment in my mind to do that.

As a result, I think I'll sleep a little better tonight than I might have if I'd handled it differently.

And you know, as we get older, a good night's sleep is all the more important.