When discussing amelioration strategies with people who are taking it less seriously than me, I’m trying to avoid letting the topic become polarized (me vs them). Letting them know that I’ll still respect them if they decide to have a different risk profile than me, and that I’ll continue to share information that I think is relevant that they can then decide what to do with. I’m avoiding framing it as ‘trying to convince them to take it more seriously.’ Defensiveness is highly counterproductive so I want to avoid that as much as possible. ‘I’ statements help stay in the right conversational frame. ‘This is the info I’ve found helpful.’ ‘These are the actions I’m taking.’ And noticing the tendency to veer towards ‘you should.’
I literally just had to edit this post to switch a bunch of ‘you’s to ’I’s so this takes practice.
When discussing amelioration strategies with people who are taking it less seriously than me, I’m trying to avoid letting the topic become polarized (me vs them). Letting them know that I’ll still respect them if they decide to have a different risk profile than me, and that I’ll continue to share information that I think is relevant that they can then decide what to do with. I’m avoiding framing it as ‘trying to convince them to take it more seriously.’ Defensiveness is highly counterproductive so I want to avoid that as much as possible. ‘I’ statements help stay in the right conversational frame. ‘This is the info I’ve found helpful.’ ‘These are the actions I’m taking.’ And noticing the tendency to veer towards ‘you should.’
I literally just had to edit this post to switch a bunch of ‘you’s to ’I’s so this takes practice.