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communication · conflict · leadership · marriage · teams

I avoid the hard conversation

Resentment, hinting, 'they should know,' tightness in the chest when their name appears.

Diagnosis

Avoidance is not kindness. It is a tax you charge the other person later, with interest. Most hard conversations are 8 minutes of discomfort you have stretched into 8 months of fog.

Protocol

  1. 1Write the sentence you are afraid to say. Cut the preamble. Cut the attack.
  2. 2Use: fact → impact → request. One request. Not a court case.
  3. 3Have it standing or walking if you spiral sitting down. Time-box to 20 minutes.

The standard: One clean conversation this week. No triangulation. No novel-length text.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

Ephesians 4:15