What to Do When You’ve Said the Wrong Thing - Deepstash
Sleep Better

Learn more about communication with this collection

The benefits of a bedtime routine

How to improve your sleep quality

How to create a relaxing sleep environment

Sleep Better

Discover 41 similar ideas in

It takes just

5 mins to read

Saying Stuff We Regret

Saying Stuff We Regret

  • We are all social creatures, susceptible to say something that may offend others.
  • We blurt out stuff, and it is at most a harmless mistake to us, but words hurt others more than anything.
  • The wound our words make is an internal one and as needs a ‘repair’ process that is not like simply apologizing when we accidently bump into someone on the elevator.

208

1.14K reads

Before We Apologize

  1. We might want to assess the actual harm and find out the depth of the wound.
  2. Don’t say ‘Why are you so mad?’, but frame it as ‘What did i do?’
  3. Don’t gaslight the problem, but say something supportive, realistic and helpful, like you understand and feel ashamed that you have committed this mistake, but you can make it better.
  4. Don’t put the problem on the backburner, or procrastinate on the ‘talk’. We need to handle the offence better or our handling becomes the offence.

213

943 reads

During Our Apology

  1. Take responsibility instead of making excuses or being defensive, or worse, accusing the other person subtly.
  2. When words touch an emotional wound, we don’t need to delve deep and try to clear our name. Feelings are different from facts, and we can forget about an objective discussion now.
  3. Be genuine in your words, body language, vocal pitch and facial pitch. Try to talk face-to-face and not by text or email.
  4. Make a case for the mistake not happening again by educating yourself, and then reassuring the hurt person.

211

743 reads

After The Apology

  1. Have an uneventful, normal interaction with the person that you hurt with your words, so that the relationship can move forward.
  2. If after all your efforts, the person is still hurt like anything, then it is best to offer another sincere apology and move on, disengaging from the person.

198

790 reads

IDEAS CURATED BY

mia_w

Social media lover and beer specialist. Love cats.

Other curated ideas on this topic:

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Personalized microlearning

100+ Learning Journeys

Access to 200,000+ ideas

Access to the mobile app

Unlimited idea saving

Unlimited history

Unlimited listening to ideas

Downloading & offline access

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates