“Walking into any conversation knowing full well that it’s okay if you choose to walk away. That it’s okay to choose if you to participate or not. It gives you such control – for me, it gives me confidence. It means I can really talk to anybody.” Lizzie Post

“Walking into any conversation knowing full well that it’s okay if you choose to walk away. That it’s okay to choose if you to participate or not. It gives you such control – for me, it gives me confidence. It means I can really talk to anybody. I’ll feel pretty good that I can set my boundaries and do what I need to do to take care of me.

“So, what might happen is when I start hearing a viewpoint I disagree with. I make a choice: Am I going to share my perspective? Am I going to listen or not engage?

“It’s a simple choice you get to make. Sometimes you’ll make the listen choice. Sometimes you’ll make the walk away choice.You can always – always – choose to be curious about what they think and what their life has gone that has led them to have these thoughts.

“You can also choose to just lightly listen to them. You don’t have to take everything they say to heart. We analyze people in our heads all the time and choose how seriously to interpret what they’re saying. You get to do that.

“Come from that place that I really get to choose makes me confident engaging in potentially confrontational territory.

“Option 1 is that, Option 2, if I’ve expressed my position a few times and I want to be done. I might say: Thank you for talking to me as much as you did. I’m going to mingle with someone else now.”

Source: The Distilled Man: Confidence | Self-Development | Career | Lifestyle | Relationships – Lizzie Post: Etiquette in the 21st Century | Listen via Stitcher Radio On Demand