People are so easily offended these days. It’s ridiculous.
And deeply damaging to the progress as an individual, of organisations, and humanity.
Worrying excessively about who you may offend is a wasteful drag on productivity. While appropriate to be somewhat mindful of unnecessary offence, “you cannot please all of the people all of the time.”
Rather like trying to be perfect. Waste of effort and energy. You just need to be exceptional in the critical areas based on your purpose, and avoid fatal imperfections.
By this, I don’t mean it’s okay to go out being rude, or strive to be an odious character. What I am saying is, move towards the position whereby you don’t need to be overly concerned about upsetting people.
You still need to be accepting and respectful of others, compassionate even. But you don’t need to pander to every sensitivity.
And if you are in the camp of easily being offended, you might want to rethink that decision. Because you are at serious risk of being sidelined. People won’t want to engage with you after being bitten a few times by your excessive sensitivity. Is that what you want, to be left out of the loop?
Short-term you’ll win with your sensitive, but soon you’ll be on your own, left in the “too hard to work with” category.
Besides, when you are easily offended, what you are actually doing is allowing others to control you. Why would you want others to be able to upset your day with an odd comment? Come on, do you want others to be able to provoke you into having a bad day?
Easier said than done I know, but it starts with recognising the downside of your easily-offended habit. Then, gradually empowering yourself so you become increasingly unconcerned what others think about you. Strong enough to rely less on what others think and say. A word that comes to mind here is – maturation.
Thus, on both sides of the fence, we are talking about becoming increasingly self-reliant. You know what you’re about, confident in your ability to get there, and get there you will get, no matter what people think.
Aka, go for it! With a modicum of judicious consideration.
Oh, and if you’re offended by my spelling of offence, get over it, I’m British. Yes, some people really do get offended by my spelling – curiously amusing.
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