It’s important to control unexpected conversational explosions because, at their worst, they can inflict major relational damage. Tamp down conversational flames with three steps—let go, stop analyzing, and forget often—when a discussion suddenly ignites.
1. Let go. Ignore and move past as many conversational mistakes and trivial communication issues as possible, and don’t let a small annoyances—like incidental misstatements or minor inaccuracies—escalate into big trouble. Forget about scoring points, making witty rebuttals, or fixing blame. And don’t stick around in a damaging argument. Head for the exit instead to allow space and time to help preserve the relationship.
2. Stop analyzing. Many conversational flare-ups don’t reveal a sinister underlying intent, nor do they signal that something is terribly wrong with the relationship. Conversations go wrong for dozens of commonplace reasons (like misunderstandings, verbal slips, and unintentional errors) that aren’t worth analyzing because there’s nothing to analyze.
3. Forget often. Regrettable comments, frustrated responses, and other impulsive words are sadly not uncommon because communication and people are fundamentally imperfect. But behind virtually every conversational explosion is a relationship that’s important to us, so a short memory can be invaluable when communication goes wrong. Better to forget what happened and give your next conversation a fresh start.
Don’t let your conversations end with an unexpected bang. Let go, stop analyzing, and forget oftento minimize the damage from conversational explosions.
Originally posted on mouthpeaceconsulting.com.