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Escalation and the Nuclear Option
When things happen in your life, how do you handle them?
We all have negative experiences in our lives. Things way outside of our control will happen, like it or not. Our feelings will get trampled upon, and likely we will inadvertently trample on people, too.
As I wrote in the Five Truths of the Self, you will:
- Screw up
- Fail
- Be wrong
- Get hurt
- Hurt others
Some of these things will be your own doing, and some will be impacted more by outside sources. Whatever happens, all of these tend to cause an emotional reaction.
Some emotional reactions are minor and inconvenient. Some are much more debilitating. Then, when something truly hits you, there may be the nuclear option.
Escalation
Let’s say that you screw up. Since it WILL happen at some point or another, you will have this experience. The question is, how do you react to the experience?
This can be parsed out in levels, but each one is an escalation from the next. As such, it is a more impactful reaction and can cause you more problems. Further, the more your reaction escalates, the more difficult it is to fix it, apologize, or take a new action…
