Maybe you know the feeling?  You prep for a conversation and as you do you realize that maybe the other party is out to get you.  Maybe they want to start a fight or have unrealistic expectations.  

I’m sad to admit that as I prepped today this is immediately where my brain went.  Thinking about the worst case scenarios I got myself all types of worked up, and then dreamt up even more elaborate plots!  It was terrible!

At one point I paused and this insight flashed in my brain…  maybe it will go very well…  maybe we are going to work this out…  as I contemplated this I went through the positives I could expect from this encounter.  Maybe they weren’t “out to get me,” and we’d have s very positive conversation.

As I began the conversation I was very calm and optimistic.  I was assuming the best, and I had already prepared for the worst should it come to that.  And guess what?  The conversation went fantastic!  Had I started from assuming the worst I truly believe there would have been a very different outcome.

While it’s good to prepare for the worst I know I still need to work on assuming the best as my first response.  That’s definitely a gap between who I am and who I want to be.  All that said, in very thankful that I remembered to assume the best of intentions, it truly served me well today.

Thanks!!!