Another way to decrease stress, part II
This morning put me on the receiving end of someone treating me well in what otherwise would have been a difficult situation, revealing why the advice from my first “How do you decrease stress?” post works so well for me.
I mis-timed an appointment. I spoke to the guy I was meeting about ten minutes after it was supposed to have started and arrived twenty minutes after that. He was gracious and gave me no trouble about it. I feel indebted to him as a result.
Had he done what I used to do — give me a hard time, look for blame, or probe out how it happened — I would have gotten annoyed and perhaps justified my lateness, however counterproductively, out of spite. Instead his graciousness put me at ease, made the meeting more productive, and, most of all, motivated me to be ahead of schedule for any future meetings with him. Isn’t that a better outcome for all than blame?
It’s good to observe the other side of one’s own advice.
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