Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Best Alternative To A Frustrating Moment

Today, I found myself starting to get really annoyed.  I had a situation where a repairman had made a mistake and marked up my wall.  My mother-in-law was mad because of the guys attitude and the repairman was defensive telling me how hard he was working and that he was sweating like a pig.  At that moment, I had a choice.

I could go for instant gratification and blast the guy for his attitude about the situation, though the damage did seem pretty minor.  Or I could speak in a calm, rational way about the situation and get it handled.  You know, kill him with kindness.  Besides, in thinking about the bigger picture, did I really want this guy continuing on the job potentially doing a bad job the rest of the way?

Though I had to come home from work for a short time, I went down the kindness route.  I came home, calmly spoke with the guy, offered him a bottle of water and though he still had some attitude, it didn't matter.  I acted that way for me, not for him.  I didn't want to relive the situation over and over again in my mind thinking to myself, "If only I'd said this...yeah, that would've been a good one."  As an aside, do we really accomplish anything by doing that?

In any event, the repairs were done and they look good.  He walked away all mad and looking frustrated while I am looking forward to a great rest of the day.  I definitely chose the better alternative. 

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