Prepare Now for Unwanted Possibility

“If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that sometimes our assumptions and preconceived notions are wrong, and therefore, our interpretation of events is incorrect. This causes us to overreact, to take things personally, or to judge people unfairly.”

Elizabeth Thornton

How will you keep your composure and intelligently respond for a successful outcome when you’re the person that is the target of assumptions and preconceived notions and people are overreacting to you, taking things personally and judging you unfairly, in a way that brings damage to your name and reputation?

Do you have a plan?

Oh, you believe you will cross that bridge when you come to it. I see. This might surprise you but in high-stress situations like these, people react more emotionally, sub-optimally or in disastrous ways than they respond skillfully. People as intelligent and successful as you have made shockingly poor decisions when they are being unfairly judged, and they paid dearly for it.

The purpose of this short piece is to communicate that it is important now to consider and develop a workable, reliable, trustworthy strategy, while you can think clearly without the multitude of stress emotions clouding your judgment and triggering unhelpful or reckless impulses. You can then stress test it when the stakes are not high.

You can pursue this risk planning on your own or research, get to know and hire a specialist who will be that professional and collaborative ally when and if (the odds are not zero that crisis will not happen to you) a reputation storm hits you, your life and well-being hard.