As I have gotten older, ahem, I mean, as I have gotten more distinguished and wiser aka gray-haired!, I have put a greater emphasis on surrounding myself with measured people and measured outlooks.
“Measured” in the form of arguments, rebuttals, encouragement, overall approaches or even just simple collaborating, etc.
When I watch the news and see footage of people losing their ever-lovin’ minds, not only am I so grateful I don’t rely on any of those people for balanced, sound and measured advice, but I steer as far away as possible from people like that.
I have been fortunate to have had people in my life who value and epitomize the exact thing I try to emulate: measured outlooks. I am grateful I realized early in my life that these kinds of outlooks are healthy and worth implementing in my life.
Now, when I think of the word “measured,” I think of rational, logical and reasonable. If someone gets upset with me and expresses frustration towards me, that’s okay and probably legitimate. Where it can take a turn is the way that frustration gets delivered to me. The delivery should come across “measured.” The delivery can even come across heated, but I still believe that person who is frustrated with me has a charge to be as rational, logical and reasonable as well as he can. If that happens successfully, how can I protest? At least, how can I protest defensively?
Conversely, if I have a frustration towards someone, I run the risk of losing credibility if I come across any other way that isn’t rational, logical and reasonable. Measured! Now, that person’s defensive response isn’t anything I can control just like a defensive response from me isn’t anything anyone else can control.
The goal is to stay measured regardless of which party of the two you are.
I have learned over the course of thousands and thousands of interactions and even more observations (just like you’ve had), measured typically lends itself to more favorable outcomes. The opposite of measured would be, well, irrational, illogical and unreasonable. Most of the time, those combinations don’t yield the same favorable outcomes.
How would you honestly answer the question below:
“Are you generally measured in your personal interactions, approaches to different things, goal-setting and your overall outlooks?”
I challenge you to answer the question, but answer it measuredly.
Three healthy heuristics below towards “measured” approaches:
