Have you ever had a hard conversation with someone? Have you found prospect of having one of these conversations confronting, nerve-wracking and even downright scary?
This TED talk by Ash Beckham gives a unique perspective on the prospect of having those hard conversations. She specifically refers to the “gay/lesbian” version of coming out of the closet, but it equally applies to any difficult conversation you need to have with someone in your life.
Sex. Kids skipping school. Betrayal. Family conflict. Work conflict. Whatever it is that you need to talk about, Ash takes you through 3 really simple suggestions to bring yourself through that conversation with grace and class.
When you feel like you’ve never (or rarely) been heard, you can easily experience the urge to be aggressive and snap at people. But if you can make a plan of what you want to say, know why you want to say it, and go in with authenticity and directness, you have nothing to apologise for. At the end of the day, you deserve to be heard. You have value. You deserve to be respected and treated well. And to receive that from other people, we first need to give it to ourselves.
So, speak your truth, and know that when you are being honest and speak from your heart, you will experience a sense of freedom that is unrivaled by anything else on the planet.
The Mindset Effect 
Written
on November 8, 2013