Is it personal?

What a daily practice of empathy looks like

Empathy must be cultivated over time. Thankfully, we all have dozens of opportunities to practice every single day when…

…you’re rushing to work and the person in line ahead of you can’t decide how they want their coffee.
…a colleague asks for yet another explanation of a project that’s been in the works for over six months.
…a family member or partner is curt for no apparent reason.
…a neighbor inadvertently gets an important piece of your mail and waits a week to give it to you.
…a customer lists all the ways you and your company have failed.
…your friend criticizes a decision you’ve made.

The most powerful empathy opportunities are the ones that are personal — the everyday conversations with people we know or encounter.

A daily empathy practice begins with the situations in which we’re directly involved. Practice empathy when it’s personal.

Side note: Ironically, conflicts we have personally (as opposed to large scale political conflicts or tension towards a group of people ‘out there’) may very well not be personal. Someone might just be having a difficult time and it comes out in their interaction with us.