4 Confucian Rules for Better Relationships and Less Conflict
4 Confucian Rules for Better Relationships and Less Conflict Quick Answer Separate facts from the story you are telling yourself about someone else's intentions. Be willing to admit uncertainty instead of pretending you know more than you do. Stay committed to your values without becoming trapped by stubbornness. Keep ego from turning ordinary disagreements into personal battles. A delayed text, a short email from your manager, or a coworker disagreeing with you can turn into a much bigger problem inside your head than it is in real life. We fill in missing information, defend positions that no longer matter, and sometimes treat being wrong as if it were a personal emergency. Human beings remain remarkably talented at manufacturing extra conflict. An interesting framework appears in the Analects . One passage describes Confucius as being free from four tendencies often translated as preconceived conclusions, rigid certainty, obstinacy, and ...