Day #52

Reactions

Sometimes we criticise someone by saying that they spend the time that you are speaking simply figuring out what to say back to you. It implies that ‘speed’ of response is what they value, to own the conversation, rather than listening, reflecting, processing, even learning.

Use your sixty seconds today to consider how you react.

I’m having a new carpet fitted in a bedroom: when the fitter rang me earlier, i could tell it was going to be bad news about my fitting date, and within a second i was defensive and had reframed our conversation as ‘bad’.

We can view this framing as an act of collapse: it takes us into a narrow mindset and space.

Ask yourself if your reaction is the end point, or if you ever ‘wind it back’. Can reflection build upon, or out of, initial reaction?