90% of our pain comes from sticky people situations. They’re unpleasant and icky and weigh us down and cause us immense brain damage and keep us from sleeping and help us lose major clients, and sometimes even get us divorced or fired or caught in the middle of a huge untraceable mess. And sometimes, there’s a really really simple cure. It is:
The 2-minute phone call
Not text, not email, not social media contact.
You know the call. Reassuring someone that you’re not mad, making the quick apology, hearing the concern, doing the quick check-in to calm feelings and clarify intentions, and generally set things right again.
And you hate the thought of making it.
But, I’ve found that, in people situations that have gone awry, you can often look back and identify a tipping point where, if the 2-minute call had been made, things would have turned out quite differently. Those 2 minutes would have saved 500 hours of pain and mental anguish.
Plus, in the vast majority of cases, the call goes much better than you anticipated.
I know you agree with me, and here’s what you’re thinking:
“He’s absolutely right. I need to get that done tomorrow.”
No. NO. NO!!
DO IT TODAY! RIGHT NOW! BEFORE YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO ANALYZE IT AND STAY CAPTIVE TO YOUR FEARS.
Do it now. Seriously.