How do you respond when someone disagrees with you?

Do you welcome the disagreement, or do you feel triggered and need to push back?

Your ability to handle opinions and points of view that don’t align with yours will be crucial to your social interactions. And, of course, your life, because life is a series of social interactions after all.

It’s natural to feel threatened when a person disagrees with you because they challenge and question your worldview, including your beliefs and values. At a subconscious level, you think that you must convince the person disagreeing with you to see the world your way, and they are probably feeling the same about you.

So, what happens when you’re at an impasse and neither party agrees?

Well, there’s the obvious answer: you no longer communicate with the other person, but if you continue down that path, you’ll live a very lonely existence.

There are a few ways to welcome and handle disagreements.

The first is that you can hold your point of view while entertaining a different or opposing point of view. Realizing that every time a person disagrees with you is not an attack on your beliefs allows you to be confident in your point of view and hear them out. When you jump to a defensive mode, you shut down your ability to truly hear what the other person is saying.

The second is a willingness to change your point of view. If you use it wisely, your ability and willingness to change your mind can serve you as a superpower. As the quote goes, “when events change, I change my mind. What do you do?”

Last is that you agree to disagree – respectfully. We do not all have to agree with each other to co-exist. Accepting the fact that everyone experiences and sees life differently and yet, make an effort to get along despite our differences.

So, the next time you find yourself in a situation where someone disagrees with you, remind yourself that there’s a high probability that it’s not a personal attack on you. It’s just that they see the world differently than you do. And if you can’t find a solution to the disagreement, then at least you can respectfully agree to disagree.

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