Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that when you feel impatient or irritated with
Speaker 1: another person, consider whether you would want to swap situations
Speaker 1: with them. Often, thinking about what they might be dealing
Speaker 1: with can nudgus toward a little more empathy, or at
Speaker 1: least suggest more effective ways of communicating with them. So
Speaker 1: I recently heard of a person complaining about an interaction
Speaker 1: with a difficult colleague, but then saying I wouldn't want
Speaker 1: to swap inboxes with her. In other words, yes, the
Speaker 1: person is a pain to work with, but she has
Speaker 1: a job that is often tedious and difficult, and her
Speaker 1: inbox is one headache after another, so perhaps she warrants
Speaker 1: a little compassion. I think it is a good mindset
Speaker 1: in general. When someone is behaving badly, think would you
Speaker 1: want to swap with them? I sometimes get irritated when
Speaker 1: someone honks or does something rude while driving, but I
Speaker 1: try to think, well, hey, I am driving back to
Speaker 1: my beautiful family and my beautiful home, and I have
Speaker 1: no idea what that person is so upset with in life.
Speaker 1: But I have no good reason to be wouldn't want
Speaker 1: to swap. When you are frustrated with your interactions with someone,
Speaker 1: it might help to imagine you had their inbox, their
Speaker 1: to do list, their calendar, their irritations, their stresses. That
Speaker 1: person who is kurt at the store may have been
Speaker 1: dealing with rude customers all day. The stressed physician may
Speaker 1: have just been delivering bad news to three patients in
Speaker 1: a row. Rightful for you. That doesn't mean it's okay
Speaker 1: to be grumpy or impatient, but if you pictured yourself
Speaker 1: swapping situations with the person, you might feel pretty irritated
Speaker 1: with the world as well. Even people you know reasonably
Speaker 1: well can have their trials. You might actually know more
Speaker 1: about these when you think about it. It is annoying
Speaker 1: to hear from a former colleague exactly twice a year,
Speaker 1: and always when she needs something from you, But hey,
Speaker 1: it would be frustrating to have gone through a series
Speaker 1: of jobs in rapid succession and to be repeatedly doing
Speaker 1: this networking from a place of need. You wouldn't want
Speaker 1: to swap with that situation. Realizing that will probably nudge
Speaker 1: you to help if you can, if nothing else, Asking
Speaker 1: what it would be like to swap with a person
Speaker 1: might give you ideas for better communication. For instance, if
Speaker 1: your kids are grown up, but a colleague has three
Speaker 1: children ages six and under who need to be delivered
Speaker 1: to separate daycares and before school programs each day, you
Speaker 1: might recognize that swapping your morning routines would make you
Speaker 1: stress too. This is not the time to be texting
Speaker 1: your colleague with last minute requests for your nine am meeting.
Speaker 1: Best to get those in the day before. If you
Speaker 1: know someone gets a ton of email, if you picture
Speaker 1: yourself with that inbox, you'd know that you would want
Speaker 1: six sync messages with the question in the subject line,
Speaker 1: So send those kinds of emails to that person. We
Speaker 1: can never understand another person's experience fully, but when we
Speaker 1: give a little thought to what it could be like
Speaker 1: to swap with them, we may find ourselves being more
Speaker 1: patient and perhaps more effective. Those are always good things.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, This is Laura, Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.