What to Remember When Confrontation Arises
People will get confrontational with you. Eventually, it will happen. Below are some best practices to address this. Now, I’m not talking about violence or even retorting to aggressive behavior. I’m talking about understanding the psychology of why this is happening in the first place.
People are focused on themselves, and themselves only. They’re not thinking about you, or even that you about what might happen. They are giving into emotions, which is usually a recipe for disaster and so the person being the aggressor is already in the losing/weaker position.
On the other hand, you are in a position to be higher or lower from first second that you are acted upon in this aggressive manner. You can either allow his or her issues to become yourself and retort (which will place you at his or her level), or you can ignore or respond in kindness.
Why it's often best to pick your battles
Take, for example, road rage. From my own experience, a majority of those (about 75-80% by my estimate) who take part in road rage behaviors drive either large pickup trucks or sports cars. So, ego can be a driving force (pun intended) in aggressive behavior and confrontation, especially on our roads.
Common sense says not to engage on the road. The same common sense applies to off of them as well.
It’s often best to either ignore confrontation, or treat them with kindness in return. By not letting aggressive people’s action influence your own actions, you are immediately placed in the stronger position and will stay there. This will throw them off because they want and/or expect you to respond in kind. By not doing that, you throw them off of their rhythm and they won’t know how to respond. If you ignore them, they have no choice but to find someone else.
Lastly, as stated above, people are usually only thinking about themselves, so their behavior is never really personal against you, even when it feels like it is.