Browse Conflict Resolution

Where has all the love gone that you once felt for your partner? Do you seem to fight about everything? Has your partner become your enemy? How did it happen?

Marriage is supposed to last “forever,” isn’t it? When we decide to get married, we truly believe that forever will happen. Sometimes that’s easier said than done, because most of us don’t have realistic guidelines or tools to know how to make a marriage last. When we fall in love, we usually think that’s all we’ll need to be happy. However, when “reality” sets in and a couple has their first real argument, they both realize that their partner isn’t perfect.

“I'm tired of arguing” are four of the most defeating words in your relationships. And there really are better ways for effectively managing conflict! As a coach and human resource administrator, I've heard these words so many times and usually it says more about you than it does about others.

It's the most wonderful time of the year... Or so they say. While the end of year holidays are supposed to be a time of peace, love, and joy, it often turns out to be a time of stress, depression and worry -- especially as people struggle to create some "holiday magic" for their friends and ...It's the most wonderful time of the year... Or so they say.

In these tough times of economic and political turmoil, with a critical Presidential election right around the corner, everyone is talking politics. Hot political debate is being fueled around the dinner table, over coffee, over drinks, and at parties. The upcoming election is in the air! But what about couples who are in different political parties with opposing points of view? Can they live happily ever after? It depends on several issues:

Most of the times you do not want conflict to go unaddressed. It is your job as a leader to ensure that your team engages in healthy and productive conflict and to make sure that conflict is not ignored. After all desperately hoping that an issue will just go away is a great way to turn a small issue into a gigantic problem! Then why is avoiding conflict is one of the recognized modes of conflict resolution as defined by the TKI or Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument?

Conflict happens in relationships. And the tension it brings is opportunity knocking at the door. We actually learn more by listening than we do by talking! When we are experiencing contrast or conflict with others, we are usually trying our best to persuade them to our point of view. And that means we just keep talking - hoping the others will see the light of our perspective. What happens if you shift your strategy and start listening - really listening? There are many benefits for you if you will apply this one very important communication tool in resolving conflicts. 1.

The first argument is the most crucial argument you will ever have in your relationship, setting the stage for all arguments to follow. Future conflicts will often look and sound like they’re different, but most times are simply variations of the first, unresolved argument. Understanding that the first argument is a tool for healing, rather than just a random conflict, can spare yourself years of grief, hopelessness, and helplessness in your relationships.

And which one do you use most often? When you understand how you handle conflict, you can begin to understand when your approach is effective and when it is not. Then you can learn to adapt your behavior and draw from different conflict resolutions styles as-needed. There are five conflict handling modes and one of these is your preferred mode. These five modes come from the TKI or Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument. What is the TKI? The TKI is a questionnaire designed to measure how you tend to handle inter-personal conflict.

Male or female friendships are usually a threat to the primary relationship, but they really don’t HAVE to be. What fears us the most is the sexual aspect of this oftentimes complicated relationship. It’s difficult to keep the friendship platonic, given that 90% of the time, one of the friends has experienced romantic feelings for his/her friend. Sometimes this is talked about, and sometimes it isn’t, but the feelings are there. The primary relationship can then be affected with secrets, lies, and avoidance.

That old phrase, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me” is not really true. Words may not inflict visible bruises like sticks and stones, but they pack a punch nonetheless. They injure our insides, our feelings, and our self-esteem. Exte al bruises are tangible proof that we’ve been hurt. Internal bruises from verbal attacks are harder to prove, harder to acknowledge, and harder to talk about.

Have you ever had these limiting thoughts about your ability to relax? “Oh, I’m long overdue for this”, or “I definitely earned it”, or “I just don’t have the time to relax”, or ”You know, sometimes I feel like I’ve forgotten how to relax” Would you like to add more relaxation to your life? I sure hope so! Relaxation will help you to strengthen your relationships, restore your body’s natural good health, boost your productivity, calm your restless mind, and bring balance into your life.

Sometimes conflict cannot be avoided and that is not a bad thing. When you and your team or you and a colleague resolve a conflict together, you build a better working relationship. When I say to you, ‘Don’t give in without a fight’; I don’t mean go have an ugly nasty altercation. I mean don’t just back down when you have a disagreement, don’t avoid a healthy debate and don’t give in because it feels easier or you think it is the peaceful thing to do. It isn’t the peaceful thing to do, because YOU won’t feel peace and neither will your team.

All of a sudden Sam had that ‘I think I forgot something feeling’, the feeling that makes some of us feel just a little bit sick to our stomachs or perhaps brings on a cold sweat. Then he realized what it was, he had completely forgotten to tell his project steering committee about the change request that the branch office had given to him when he visited their facility two weeks ago. The branch manager’s administrative assistant had handed him a hardcopy as he was leaving for the airport.

There is a significant difference between anger and rage. Anger can be viewed as a scale that ranges from minor irritation to intense rage. It can be very scary indeed when the scale tips toward rage. Most of us don’t have any idea what to do when someone we love becomes that angry. Do we leave them alone until they calm down? Will that enrage them more? Do you get angry back? Will that enrage them more? Can you even reason with someone who is that mad? Do you have to protect yourself from their anger?

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.” Do any of you remember that charming little childhood chant? It was meant to ward off the cruel verbal taunts we received from other children. Sometimes kids can be very harsh with their teasing. Sometimes adults can be very harsh with their words too. And the above childhood chant, well sometimes it may have helped you but most of the time it You see words are a very powerful tool. Expressing our thoughts as words is one of the strongest powers we possess as human beings.

For most of us, we want the holidays to be fun and exciting. But more often than not, the holiday season evokes tension and stress. By spending more money than our budgets allow, or going overboard by eating the wrong foods, or taking on too many activities…these exte al stressors are only a piece of the bigger picture. These problems only compound when we are faced with unresolved family issues and budget limitations.

You’re in a new relationship, and you’re starting to see some red flags, warning you that the relationship may not be a good bet, but does that mean you should leave? How many red flags does it take to make that decision? How do you know if the red flags mean future disaster, or are just a warning?

Recently we have discussed steps to take to when you decide to step in and step up to conflict resolution. In ‘You Decide to Resolve a Conflict’ Part I and Part II one of the underlying assumptions was that you had time to plan your actions and the steps you would take to resolve the conflict.

One of the most popular ways to make money online work at home data entry jobs to become. Quickly process large amounts of data need to organizations worldwide. Data entry workers, a smooth and successful operation of information to ensure. You see a house mother or father, some gold transactions to supplement their regular income to spend money getting, so can work at home data entry jobs, you could see just what students. Bad rats, sleep disorders are not, training usually

The women next to me in line said to her friend, "I am so tired of people telling me what I should do. I just want to yell, STOP SHOULDING ON ME!" I could not help but smile a bit. Not at her annoyance and frustration, but at the phrase, 'stop shoulding on me.' I thought, "What a great expression." The expression stayed with me for days.

One of the more common definitions of conflict is that it is a clash between two (or more) opposing groups or that it is a power struggle or a battle between opposing forces. When you think of conflict, you may think of it as a negative (think power struggle or battle) or you may think that it must always be about other people. Some of you may go as far as to believe that if it were not for other people you would never have to deal with conflict. Today, I ask you to consider a few questions.

Do you and the people you work with share the exact same beliefs, perspectives, priorities and goals? Probably not. Hmmm, I guess that means you are going to experience conflict. Conflict is a condition in which people’s conce s appear to be incompatible. In fact since you and your co-workers are not intellectual and emotional clones of one another, conflict is inevitable. Conflict is a natural byproduct of our environment. Conflict is not inherently bad or evil (although some of us have been taught to avoid conflict like the plague). Conflict does not have to lead to fighting.

Did you blink? Here it is again, another holiday season! Do you love this time of year or do you dread it? Perhaps your feelings are a bit mixed. Your holiday experience can be really upsetting, tiring and stressful OR your holiday season can truly be one of peace and joy. The choice is up to YOU. Your thoughts and actions during this time will define your holiday experience. You cannot control the thoughts and actions of others, but you can take control of your own thoughts and actions.

Mary Carol had a difficult decision to make. Her team had an important and risky system upgrade to complete. The upgrade definitely needed to occur over a weekend. The schedule was tight and many of the team members felt that the upgrade should occur over an upcoming holiday weekend. This would give them extra time just in case the upgrade did not go smoothly. Other team members hated this idea and were rebelling against the idea of giving up a weekend plus a Monday holiday. As the senior project manager, Mary Carol would make the final decision.

“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. “ Jonathan Kozol: On Being a Teacher, 1981 Truthfully I do not know if I completely agree with the above quote, I bring it to you anyway because part of me thinks, ‘well this makes sense, I want to pick battles I can win’; but part of me wonders, ‘is this discouraging me from thinking big?’ I have spent so much time learning that so many of us really under estimate ourselves, that I would never want the above to be an excuse for playing it too safe or not fully utilizing our potential.

Sounds crazy, but it’s true! Simply put, the first argument you have with your partner, if left unresolved, will manifest itself time and time again - in different forms – throughout your entire relationship.

No, we cannot all get along all of the time. It is unrealistic to think that all team members will absolutely agree with you or with each other all of the time. If every time you are together, there is never any disagreement, look out - you have problems. Sure, maybe the first time you meet you are on your best behavior. But if this persists, perhaps you have a tendency toward getting along. This means you value being agreeable over other traits. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being accommodating.

The time has come. You have a conflict and it cannot and must not be avoided. Not everyone agrees on the solution and arriving at an approach that moves you and the team forward is absolutely necessary. Now what? This really does not need to be a big deal. But you do want to set the stage for a strong and healthy battle. Sure the word battle does not always have positive connotations, but when you have multiple factions arguing over an issue, you do have a battle. If it makes you feel better call it a competition.

Maybe you've mastered conflict resolution and you like to help others. Maybe you are the one that others come to for help when they have a conflict or you work in an environment where conflict occurs regularly. But somehow you find yourself stepping in and helping to resolve the conflicts around you. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? It depends. It certainly makes more sense for you to be involved in healthy conflict as opposed to unhealthy conflict. And today we will focus on healthy conflict. What is healthy conflict?

“I am too busy doing the work to worry about all that people stuff”, said one of my students.

In today’s world there are many and different types of psychotherapy, each one varying in its approach to patients and it’s common and founding hypothesis and theories. And even though there is still no complete understanding of how the human brain functions, most of the therapeutic approaches are based on successful methods and provide a way to treat the problems , having as little knowledge as we have. A person must understand , however, that even though most of the the

If you follow sports you have noticed that top athletes do not always perform consistently. A world class runner may break a world record in one competition and then not even place in the same event one week later. A champion weight lifter might break a record and then be unable to lift that same weight for several workouts. These are professionals, champions, stars - why can't they demonstrate peak performance every time? Aren't they giving it their all each time? Well, they are doing their best. There is nothing wrong.

Perhaps the most important commonality clients of trained personal coaches have in common is that they achieve their clearly defined life goals sooner by moving through challenges more quickly. Many coaching clients enjoy new levels of happiness, improved communication skills, renewed mental and physical vitality, enhanced creativity, more effective time management and personal productivity, heightened emotional stability, improved income, and deeper intimacy in relationships.

You have observed a conflict between some of your team members and you realize you are the right person to help them reach a resolution. How do you KNOW this? You have carefully considered the situation, perhaps using “Can You SHOULD You Help Resolve the Conflicts Around You?” as your guide. Your next move is all abut the HOW, as-in HOW to move forward. The optimal scenario is that you are able to prepare in advance. Today we are going to look at the first few steps to take to help you prepare.

Does your spouse take credit for your ideas? Or do people compliment your spouse for tasks or projects that you did? Do you get the credit where credit is due?

For many women, the mother-daughter connection is life's most complex relationship. So it comes as no surprise that many of us struggle with the relationship that we share with our mothers and many of us struggle with the relationships that we share with our daughters. As a mediator and as a woman, I am intrigued by how the mother-daughter bond can bring both conflict and comfort.

Is it possible for something good to come out of the economic downtu ? Can a relationship, even one that may be experiencing its own hard times, come out better for surviving the hard times? Here are some ways to use the recession to your benefit: 1. Back to Basics. View this as an ...Is it possible for something good to come out of the economic downtu ? Can a relationship, even one that may be experiencing its own hard times, come out better for surviving the hard times? Here are some ways to use the recession to your benefit:

Do you have anyone in your life who displays any of the following behaviours (on a regular basis)? Gets all defensive and angry when they are given any form of feedback? rn‘Flies of the handle’ at the slightest thing? rnGets really upset and displays behaviours such as crying and tantrums when things aren’t going their way? rnIgnores how the rest of the room is feeling and is unable to pick up the emotions of others? rnIs like a Boeing 747, they land on others feelings:

“Stress is damaging to your health, so take care of yourself,” is very sound advice, but what exactly does that mean and how exactly do you take care of yourself and lessen stress? Experiencing optimal physical, mental, and spiritual health includes the good fortune of having healthy and ...“Stress is damaging to your health, so take care of yourself,” is very sound advice, but what exactly does that mean and how exactly do you take care of yourself and lessen stress?

Minimizing Holiday Stress While the holidays are supposed to be a joyous time spent with our most loved family and friends, it also comes with extra stress. We find ourselves in the midst of shopping for that perfect gift, planning parties, attending parties, cooking, baking, attending company functions, working extra hours to fill in for those taking holiday vacations, worrying about finances, especially during this tough economic time and keeping up with the regular day to day responsibilities. We quickly find ourselves on complete overload.

“To observe people in conflict is a necessary part of a child's education. It helps him to understand and accept his own occasional hostilities and to realize that differing opinions need not imply an absence of love.” … Milton R Sapirstein When children can see others disagree and disagree with respect and they see that nothing bad happens, what a terrific example! Disagreement is part of life. Becoming upset is part of life.

Sounds crazy, but it’s true! Simply put, the first argument you have with your partner, if left unresolved, will manifest itself time and time again - in different forms – throughout your entire relationship. When we fall in love and begin a partnership, we temporarily maintain our best ...

“For your Marriage ………………………….” Dr. Pradnya Ajinkya MS Counselling and Psychotherapy, PhD, PG Jou alism I am a Mumbai-based psychological counsellor and family therapist. I have seen fair share of dysfunctional marriages. Here, I recount the case of Subeesh and Suprabha. Subeesh and Suprabha were married for 6 years. Subeesh was a recovering alcoholic and drug addict years before he met Suprabha. She was a successful professional and Subeesh was in the top management in a

According to statistics, 45 or 55 percent of married women and 50 to 60 percent of married men engage in extramarital sex at some time or another during their relationship. An affair is one of the most difficult challenges a couple can face, and nothing destroys a marriage faster than marital infidelity. As shocking as statistics are, you may wonder then if it’s really possible to affair-proof your marriage. The answer is: Yes, it’s possible. But in order to make that happen, it’s important to know what can cause an affair.

Sometimes you find yourself working with someone and no matter how kind and compassionate you try to be, you still think they are a jerk. Maybe they yell all the time or they are condescending or a back stabber. It might be tempting to yell at them more loudly than they yelled at you or to answer them with sarcasm or to plot your revenge.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I still remember this supervisor looking at me and yelling, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WOULD NOT CHOOSE THE MINISTER?” Ok, Ok – this is a pretty old memory (from the late 1980’s), so it could be that I don’t have the details quite right. Maybe she did not really yell and maybe everyone in the room did not turn and stare at me and maybe I did not turn beet red. Or maybe some of this is how it really happened.

As a professional mediator I have seen the power of the apology first hand. Practicing the 12-Step directive to "make a list of all persons we have harmed, become willing to make amends to them all, and make direct amends wherever possible" may be one of the best life practices you can incorporate. In fact, adopting this philosophy can drastically improve your relationships. Here is what you need to know about apologies:

7 Tips For Parenting From Afar Whether afar is across town or across the country these tips will help any parent who is not currently sleeping under the same roof as his or her children, due to divorce or some other reason.

“We can’t retract the decisions we’ve made, we can only affect the decisions we’re going to make from here.” As said by actor Jamie Foxx in the movie, Law Abiding Citizen.

“There is no squabbling so violent as that between people who accepted an idea yesterday and those who will accept the same idea tomorrow… “ CHRISTOPHER MORLEY Wow now isn’t that the truth? Here is another excellent opportunity to sharpen your conflict resolution skills. Some of you accept new ideas right away in fact you live for the opportunity to challenge the status quo. Some of you don’t see the need for anything new, everything works now as-is, why gum up the process? Why fix something that is not broken? Most of you are probably somewhere in the middle.

Over lunch, Jacob and Marilyn discussed some of the frustrations they were experiencing on one of their current projects. Jacob was a business analyst on the project and Marilyn was the subject matter expert. Jacob turned to Marilyn and said to her, “If you could say just one thing to Tom our project manager, what would it be?” Without hesitation Marilyn replied, “Please, make a decision.”

In one of the first classes I taught, I had a student who was always scowling at me. It would have been really hard to miss that scowl. He sat in the front row and it was a small class in a small room. He was friendly enough when he entered the class room and when he left for the evening. But invariably at some point during our class discussions he would scrunch up his face and start scowling at me. I had no idea what I was doing to upset him. I spent a great deal of time thinking about it. I can’t say that I changed the content of the course I was teaching because of his scowls.

In You Decide to Resolve a Conflict, Now What? (http://blog.melonicoaching.com/?p=818) we discussed some steps to take when you decide to step in and help resolve a conflict. These steps were designed to help you when you know in advance that you will be facilitating resolution.

Why is it that our human race has such a difficult time telling the truth? The politician scandals mount each day as our own leaders think the best way to get through something is to lie about it. Almost always, especially with today’s technology and media resources the ones who lie get caught one way or another. Videos on YouTube, cell phone records, internet emails and texting have found ways to expose all the little and big lies that are told. Those in government office

An affair is one of the most difficult challenges a couple can face. It is a powerful catalyst that can either end the relationship or take it to a greater level of intimacy. An extreme symptom of a relationship that has been in trouble for some time, affairs do not happen out of the blue. They challenge both partners to look at themselves and their relationship in a radically new way.

I have been reading various articles on dealing with anxiety; All well intentioned, and providing good advice, but is it the right advice? Simply saying to not worry and be more content does little to help me. I know that’s what I need to do. It just makes me all the more frustrated when I can’t. I think, if I could just stop obsessing about this, maybe I wouldn’t be so anxious. I need to know how to stop.

Last year there was an unfortunate incident at a military base in the United States. I am talking about Fort Hood. An individual started shooting people. Within hearing range of the shooting a graduation ceremony was taking place. Attending the graduation were medics and other trained personnel. In the midst of this sad crisis, something interesting happened. Many of the participants in the graduation ceremony heard the gunfire and dropped everything and ran towards it.

Sally looked at Mary Carol and said, "Wow how did you do that? How did you just brush it off, I mean Jim just got in your face and told you that he hates working with you. And you are just as calm and collected as ever." Mary Carol looked at Sally and said, "Well I am really not taking it personally." Sally was flabbergasted. "How can you NOT take that personally?" she asked. Mary Carol shared her beliefs about taking things personally: "What other people say and do, is really a reflection of them. The decisions people make about their own behavior is really about themselves.

There are so many positive strategies and processes to use in managing conflict effectively. And sometimes it’s very important to know how to avoid the pitfalls. You will enhance your success in finding heart peace if you stay aware of the energies that are the indicators and outcomes of conflict. These energies begin with small contrasts that come from mismatched expectations among people. And there are some mistakes you can avoid making if you know about them before they come up. You can safely and effectively avoid these Five Mistakes during Conflict.

Understanding your choices is essential in managing conflict. And, yes, there is always more than one choice! You just have to decide what consequence you will live with. This helps you resolve your own inner conflict. And just as important is the strategy of providing choices for others when you are in conflict. The narrowing of choice is not motivating. It is the expansion of choice or the opportunity to decide that motivates an individual to go beyond feeling victimized. And in businesses or organizations, it allows an individual to go beyond minimal competence.

"There are three ways of dealing with difference: domination, compromise, and integration. By domination only one side gets what it wants; by compromise neither side gets what it wants; by integration we find a way by which both sides may get what they wish..." Mary Parker Follett The above quote is an ideal reminder that there are multiple ways to deal with conflict. Is there a bias being displayed about the best way to resolve a conflict? Sure, in this instance the favored approach is integration.

Your Emotional Intelligence can help make or break you. After all your Emotional Intelligence or EQ is your ability to handle yourself and others. It is all about your ability to get along with others and build relationships. In today’s world it is not enough to be good at the technical aspects of your job, if you really want to separate yourself from the pack you need to get along well with others too! Getting along well with others also means that you can face conflict with the people around you and keep those relationships intact.

Question, what is the resource that you cannot acquire more of? Do you think it is money? Do you think it is a specific type of skilled labor or a certain type of raw material? NO! Although you or your company might be feeling financially challenged you can find ways to earn money, you can find labor and other resources. The answer is T-I-M-E, TIME!

You have worked side-by-side with your team for quite some time and the good news is that it has been truly enjoyable. You get along, you work hard together and you laugh hard together. Lucky you, this might even be an example of a high performing team. You assumed it was because you had so much in common. Then one day the inevitable occurred. The conversation turned toward religion or politics or some other high stakes topic. You were not too conce ed. After all, you get along so well and this must be because you are all so alike.

“Oh no, here we go again” thought Joe as his Quality Assurance Analyst Heidi approached him with his memo, complete with typos circled in red ink. He was not really annoyed by Heidi, she was just doing what she does; he mainly felt embarrassed. After all as the leader shouldn’t all of his work be perfect? He tried, he really did, but editing his own writing was just boring to him and not one of his strengths.

That’s it YOU have had it. You are tired of dealing with that person. THEY are always doing things on purpose to make you look bad. THEY are always doing things on purpose to get on YOUR nerves. Well it is time to do something, so YOU are going on the attack. Going on the attack can mean different things to different people or different things in different environments. For the purposes of our conversation you are not planning a physical attack. This is the workplace and let’s assume an office environment. Your form of attack looks something like this:

EQ is the acronym for Emotional Intelligence. So not only do you and I have an IQ (Intelligence Quotient), we also have emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence is not about traditional intelligence. It is about our ability to handle ourselves and others. It is all about our ability to get along with others and build relationships. The concept of EQ became popularized by Daniel Goleman in 1995. His book (also called Emotional Intelligence), helped us to understand that it is not just technical and analytical abilities that make a successful leader.

Are you a disciple of some faith? What is the Truth that you bear witness to through your faith? By definition, a disciple of Christ is always stepping up spiritually by bearing witness to Jesus the Christ. Being a disciple need not mean that you throw off all your earthly occupations or do away with all other endeavors in life.

“Go ahead and tell me the steps you will take to complete this assignment.” This is the question that none of my early supervisors ever asked me on the job. And boy was I relieved that they never asked this question. Why? Because I had no clue! When I was new on the job I was afraid to ask questions or to admit what I did not know. I would run back to my cubicle and frantically search for the information I needed to complete my new assignment.

Danielle left the house with just five minutes to spare. It would have been better if she had left ten or fifteen minutes early because she wanted to stop and buy a cup of coffee. She decided that she could probably get in and out of the coffee house within seven minutes and that being just two minutes late to work was perfectly acceptable. Then Danielle drove to the coffee house. When Danielle arrived at the coffee house the line seemed manageable. But quickly Danielle was able to see that she was going to be late.

“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. “ Jonathan Kozol: On Being a Teacher, 1981 Truthfully I do not know if I completely agree with the above quote, I bring it to you anyway because part of me thinks, ‘well this makes sense, I want to pick battles I can win’; but part of me wonders, ‘is this discouraging me from thinking big?’ I have spent so much time learning that so many of us really under estimate ourselves, that I would never want the above to be an excuse for playing it too safe or not fully utilizing our potential.

“Margaret, you share with us these great tips for treating people with compassion. You make sense when you remind us that other people’s behavior is about them. But how are we supposed to really do this in the real world? Especially when someone is right in my face and I just want to yell at them?” Not only is that a fair and honest question, it is one I hear frequently. If treating others with compassion was easy to do all of the time, almost everyone would do it all of the time.

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (Matthew: 5:23-25) Managing conflict sometimes means admitting you are wrong or acknowledging that you have hurt or harmed some other part of life. This verse of Scripture simply and lovingly instructs us about what is most important. We may be seeking to get right with God – the Spirit of God that is somehow much higher than where we are.

One of the more common definitions of conflict is that it is a clash between two (or more) opposing groups or that it is a power struggle or a battle between opposing forces. When you think of conflict, you may think of it as a negative (think power struggle or battle) or you may think that it must always be about other people. Some of you may go as far as to believe that if it were not for other people you would never have to deal with conflict. Today, I ask you to consider a few questions.

Most of you are your own worst critic. So when you make a mistake you are much harder on yourself than you would be on anyone else. It is completely normal to be disappointed with yourself, but the longer you beat yourself up the longer it takes for you to regain your confidence. If you were mad with a friend or a family member, that anger may not go away in five minutes. You might be angry for a little while. The same thing is going to be true with YOU. And again, if you are your own worst critic, you’re going to be harder on yourself than you would be with someone else.

Is this you? You start working for somebody new and you want to make a good impression. Maybe you start carrying your BlackBerry with you everywhere and you answer them all night and all weekend. Every time they send you something, you answer them whether or not you are on call. As time goes by you find that you are becoming annoyed by the people you work with. What is up with them? They call you or text you all hours of the day and night. When you do not answer right away they keep sending you message after message. You find yourself become ever more irritable.

Hi Everyone, The item below is not a new post, but it has become an ‘old favorite’ and it is appropriate for this time of year. Once again I bring you ‘Seasoning Our Behavior’. This week marks the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. There are many traditions that surround this holiday and I am not just talking about overeating and hitting the mall for shopping the next day. Thanksgiving designates the beginning of the holiday season for many residents of the United States. And the workplace during this time of year can be very interesting indeed.

When I first saw The Secret, I had some conce s. The Law of Attraction was presented, and much of the message was what I refer to as a sunny-side-up version of it.

Marcy Rubin is a Professional Life Coach working with the Bipolar Community. Her site offers information on the benefits life coaching for Bipolar, A Directory with 500 links & resources, a list of 100 famous people with bipolar, along with testimonials from clients, mentors & peers on Marcy and her accomplishments.