Relationships are never easy, and likely, you and your friends and family don’t agree on everything. This feeling is natural, and everyone has to deal with this at some point or another in their lives. You want to be careful not to allow disagreements to ruin your relationships. So, what is the best way to keep this from happening?
Don’t Avoid Arguments
When you know you and a friend or family member don’t agree on something, it can sometimes seem like a good idea to avoid the argument altogether. For example, your partner will ask if something is okay with you and because you don’t want to upset them with an argument – you lie and say you are feeling fine. Lying isn’t the solution because now your partner has false information about the relationship that they may use to make future decisions. These decisions will only cause future problems instead of answering honestly and resolving the issue immediately.
Never Let Your Agreements Get Personal
You’ve seen it in a million TV shows, the couple is arguing over who needs to do the dishes, and then one of the parties brings up an unrelated incident that happened months before that they are still upset about. Getting too personal transforms the argument into an attack on the person’s character and makes it worse than just the incident. When this happens in a dispute with your partner, you need to realize that this is no longer a constructive argument and needs to end before someone’s feelings are hurt.
Agree to Disagree
Suppose you notice that an argument between you and your partner is beginning to escalate to the point where someone could say something that hurts the other person’s feelings or permanently damage the relationship. In that case, it’s time to agree to disagree.
Despite what people may think, agreeing to disagree is a resolution to an argument. And by using it in a fight you are having with your partner, it’s the same as saying you respect their opinion, but you will never see the same way, so you respect them enough to stop arguing before someone gets hurt.
At the end of the day, it can be challenging not to let a disagreement ruin a relationship. But suppose it’s a relationship worth fighting for. In that case, it’s important to remember not to avoid arguments, don’t let them ever get personal, and agree to disagree if you come to a point where there is no other resolution to the dispute. ♥