Friday; April 18

What do we do when someone shows us up?  I would imagine that it has happened to all of us – we had something planned and someone did something to either diminish what we were doing or did something to promote their own agenda.  Whether they did it on purpose or not, it can be humiliating, aggravating or painful.  So, getting back to the original question – what do we do?  A common reaction to this is to snap back at them, either by finding a way to make them look foolish or to give them a lecture on their insensitivity which features a dressing down in the form of the question that begins, “How could you do that to me?”.  In the long run, I don’t know that it makes things better, but at the moment, it tends to make us feel vindicated.  Unfortunately, the good feeling we get might be negated by the damage we do.  We might feel better, but we probably don’t look good.

Rather than retaliating against the perceived slight, we have two better options.  First, we can just ignore what was said and move on or we can shine the spotlight back on the individual and give them a bit of their moment in the sun.  If what they said was true, they deserve affirmation even if it was what we had planned to say later on.

Pride can be a challenging emotion for many of us.  Let’s make sure we are on the lookout for it in our lives.  When we refuse to give in to it, we grow and we allow others to shine.  By living with this virtue, we both come off looking good.

Think About It!

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