Relationships can be hard. Many people seek out guidance to improve them, to hold on to them, or even to muster the courage to let them go in some cases.
Many relationships between people such as family, friends, and committed relationships can be dramatically improved by one simple skill:
<b>Being able to handle conflict directly and as soon as it’s reasonably possible to do so.</b>
The failure to accomplish this will determine the quality of those relationships. Let’s face reality – no relationship between people will good smoothly 100% of the time. It just won’t.
The interplay between conflict resolution skills and the quality of your relationships is intricate and shows a direct correlation between the two. The better your conflict resolution skills are, the better your relationships will be. There’s no debating this simple fact.
Having the skills to address conflict as it arises is crucial!
Of course, there are always two people in a given relationship. One person having top-notch skills in this area isn’t enough to take it to the heights. Both people must possess good conflict resolutions skills for the relationship to thrive. While the relationship involves two people, conflict starts within only one person. It’s up to them how they proceed.
Many people take what they perceive to be the path of least resistance for them, which is to ignore and sweep it under the rug. To be fair, the reasoning might be sound. On the surface, it makes sense. They don’t want to step on the other person’s toes or burden them in any way, so they let it go. They may rationalize that it is nothing major, that it could be resolved on its own. They might even harbor the expectation that the other person can read his or her mind. They take on the passive strategy of hope.
Sweeping things under the rug is a BAD strategy.
Many people who take this sort of passive hope methodology when it comes to conflict within their relationships don’t realize the very subtle damage this does to those relationships and the people they care about. By sweeping it all under the rug and not addressing it, it typically doesn’t go away. It just finds the food it needs to grow and fester within the other person.
Conflict resolution needs to happen early and often. The sake of your relationships depends on it.