Stop Letting People Use Their Personality as an Excuse

I have the daughter-in-law. She's a step-daughter-in-law who is very ethnic-rich but she's a lawyer and she says, "I like to be very direct." And then she hits you with a singer and tells you how awful you are, blah, blah, blah, tell your off. It's a pattern she's had. She's done some really bad ones once she did a free day of effort to tell me off.

“What's behind all this with her and how do I counter that?”

So there's this thing that some people have that they... this is what it sounds like. This is just my personality. This is just how I am. I'm just very direct and they use that as some type of excuse to say not nice things. The things that are rude things are aren't kind and yet they feel like they have some shroud of immunity because they go that this is just my personality. You don't need to take that. This is what I want you to do instead.

Questions are far more powerful than statements, especially when somebody's being rude.

When somebody says, "Hey, this is just my personality."

“You get to ask the question, "Is that a personality or is this a choice?"”

Is this a personality or is this a choice? You say how instead of me going and turning into a statement of accusation and saying, "No, it's not your personality. This is how you're just choosing to be. This is how you are." Like that's only going to make it worse. But if you ask the question, then they get to actually think about it and now there's a spotlight on how they're treating you. Now they have to go through the mental exercise of answering that question or choosing to accept their bad behavior.

You give them choices and I want people to tend to do the more reasonable choice of walking it back rather than doubling it down. Another thing, when somebody is, when you ask the question of, "What's behind all that?" What's behind all that? I'll tell you what's behind all that.

It is an inner insecurity that if they are not people that are very brisk, very, I just, they always have the spikes out.

There always somebody who is overtly confrontational just for the sake of it. That is them being extremely defensive on the inside of fear of looking weak at all costs because they are afraid that if they do look weak, then they lose something. They lose that identity. And most likely that's something that how she has been this step-daughter in law of yours has been long before she ever came anywhere near your life and your family. I don't think you're going to be changing that. When I'm telling you, it's not going to change that behavior.

I'm going to teach you how to deal with that behavior and it starts with what I just told you is turning statements into questions. Don't you get really disciplined about turning statements and the questions too? When she makes that kind of grouchy responses that you said, "Man, they're just singers, they hurt you." I want you to not be afraid of beginning your question with "Did you mean? Did you mean for that to hurt?" Wow, did you mean for that to hit me like that? It's a great way of being a mirror for

then to realize, "Hey, what you're saying has an impact?" And if she's okay with hurting you, that's a much bigger problem than we're going to ever talk about on this quick voicemail.

“What I'm telling you is these are the kind of things that you need to have in your arsenal.”

In three, I want you to realize where you rank this person in your life. I have no idea how close you are, but I want you to realize that there are circles and there is people that you keep close and people you know to keep far away. And so she's somebody who continues to give singers and continues to take

more than she gives and always feels like, "That's just my personality." You don't need to put up

with that. You don't need to be anywhere near that. You limit that kind of behavior. Overall, what I want you to realize is, "When you get those kind of, this is just my personality. This is just who I am." You get to ask the question, "Who you are or who you're wanting to be?" Is this how you are naturally or is this a new choice for you? And you get to even say like, "It doesn't sound like a personality." It sounds like a problem. It sounds like an issue. Sounds like

you're upset. Sounds like something else is going on. There's these the starters that also, like it sounds like seems like, it sounds like there's something else going on. It sounds like,

of direct attack. Instead, you're opening up to invite a little bit more conversation. If it is

warranted, but turn questions into statements. Don't put up with it. Thanks. Hi, this is Kelly. I am a sales leader for a large organization and I live in Charleston, South Carolina.

“And I am curious, what is the best way to respond to a backhanded complement? Sometimes,”

I will receive backhanded compliments from some of my peers within my organization. And it feels obvious to me. The motive is behind a backhanded compliment, but I'm curious what would be the best way to respond in the moment to one? I'd appreciate your advice. Thanks so much. Great question.

Here's what I want you to do. The next time you get one of these backhanded compliments from a co-worker,

or client, or whatever it is. Take what they said and regurgitate it back and add a question mark at the end. That's it. Backhanded compliment, I want you to just repeat it. Put a question mark at the end of it. So if somebody, let's say a backhanded compliment, I'm just making this up. Somebody came to you and said, "Oh, it's so great that you're here. It's nice that you're finally on time." You hear all like passive, that's kind of dismissive, this backhanded compliment meant

in so much. You get to repeat it and go, "It's so great that I'm here." As if you're questioning what they're, where they're motive is, what they're coming from. It might sound that you didn't understand it. That's not how it's going to come across to you. It's going to come across and that you heard exactly what they said, but something doesn't add up. So number one, you can repeat it back with the question mark, which is going to make them explain it. And number two, another, I'm going

to give you three different options. So you can pick and choose which one that matches with you. So one is the repeating it back at a question mark. I like that one because it then makes the other person explain. Number two, another option that you can have is to ask them in almost this very confident tone. Tell me more, tell me more, what you meant by that. Tell me more about that. Would you mean by that? Tell me more about that. So whenever you ask for like more information,

you, in this case, instead of asking them verbatim what they said, now you get to be a little bit more direct. So you crank this up a little bit in directness of saying, "Give me more information." Oh, that's that's interesting comment. Would tell me, tell me more about that. Tell me more about that. So that allows them to kind of go, "Oh, I mean, what I meant to say was, I mean, you know, to try and what they say in the South, him and Hall over what exactly they meant to say.

Number three, the other one that I would without knowing exactly what kind of backhand accomplishment they're going to give is this is going to be, I'm going to give you one, we're increasing in directness scale, right? Just depending on your own temperature. This is using the word backhanded. Okay, might feel uncomfortable to you. So try it out, try it out a few times before we actually use it. And that's using, it sounds like this. That sounds kind of backhanded,

“or you can even ask us a question. I like that even better. Did you mean for that to be backhanded?”

Was that supposed to be backhanded? Like you hear how they, it automatically, their response, especially if it's a backhanded compliment, is for them to go, "Oh, no, I mean, what I mean was and they're going to adjust and try and tweak, but here's the takeaway. You can't stop them from

saying at the first time, but you can stop them from saying at the second time. There's your power.

You can't stop them from saying stupid things, but you can make sure that they know that the second stupid thing they said is not something you're going to take. And it's by how you respond to the first one is going to significantly, significantly impact your likelihood of getting a second stupid thing that they said. So whenever you're able to say, was that supposed to be backhanded?

“Like was it, you hit that with the forehand or backhand, which one is that?”

Almost be playful with it. Then they're, you see how then it doesn't look like it hits you. Here's the takeaway, too, on top of this so that I want to touch on.

energy and control that they were looking for. They're going to see that and go, "Got it." But instead,

“if you keep this very calm, composed, almost playful, inquisitive of, where's this coming from?”

Was that meant to be backhanded? That allows you to keep that energy of, I'm not accepting this. I haven't accepted this yet. I'm more concerned in question of, "Where are you sending this from?" So I'd say, "Okay, I get the delivery address, but where are you sending it from here?" I kind of know it's you, but what's going on inside of you that would make you want to say something like that? That's the kind of behavior that I want you to take on. Cool? Awesome question. We don't put

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Use the gogeverson for up to 20% off. That's cozy earth.com/cheverson. Use the gogeverson for up to 20% off. Let's get going. Hi Josephson. Thank you. You have helped me so much. I'm so grateful. I have a narcissistic husband. That is also a psychopathic. He intentionally inflicts and says things that he knows. My wounds to create pain, knowing it will hurt me and then laugh and then I'm to blame for when I react. Everything I'm to blame for, he puts me down. The little is me. Everything

you can think of. Please, how do I communicate with him? I'm wanting to leave him. But still, he won't hear me. He continues to say nasty, horrible things. Why me to take account of the responsibility? Please, how do I communicate with him? He won't understand me. I won't listen. He just won't listen. He won't hear me. Everything's about him. Please, how do I deal with him? I'm leaving him the same house as him and I'm leaving to get him. For me to move forward,

I'm leaving to get him to agree, to pay me out without ripping me off. He has all control and power. He loves it. He thrives on it. He gets pleasure out of seeing me when I'm upset and in pain. It's literally disgusting. The police had all I communicate with him and not react. Thank you. Love your work. That is horrible. I can't even speak to the situation that you're in. What I do know is that nobody deserves that. That is unfair. That is unjustified.

That is a zero toleration policy. Your question is, how do I communicate with him?

“You don't. You need to go communicate to some lawyers. That's who you need to go communicate to.”

Some divorce lawyers. How do I communicate with him? If what you say is true, that it doesn't matter how you've communicated. Can you understand how what you're saying hurts me? Do you understand how this impacts me? He's a laughing and he's taking joy in your pain. It doesn't matter what you say. He's turning this around. You stop playing in his sandbox. What you're trying to do is build, trying to build some type of something,

to have a communication, to have a conversation, a real conversation that's genuine, and he can't do it. That's not a you problem. That's a him problem. If you say, how do I communicate with him?

He sounds terrible. If what you say is true, that sounds just absolutely intolerable.

“You have to understand that every time you get into this, I want to communicate with him.”

He's going to turn it into one or two things. It's what I call praise or provoke. Meaning. If you're not telling him how awesome he is and how good he is, like you said, he just takes so much joy in this. That he's going to turn it to now provoke you into you getting upset and he's going to fan that flame all day every day. Why? Because that's that sense of control. He's not going to be able to do empathy. So please don't expect for there to be movement from a boulder. That's not going

to happen. And that is hard to hear. And that might even feel like a shot to you to hear. But I know

what you're hearing is you're nodding your head and knowing deep down that it's true. So what do we do? We stop trying to communicate with him and I need you to start communicating with some

“attorneys to get you out of this relationship. That's what? Because nobody deserves what you're going”

through. If you have, I'm not, I want to be very clear. I'm not promoting divorce. I'm not promoting that there should not try to be something worked out and that there can't be this. And I'm not trying to push any type of ideal. What I am saying in pushing for is your emotional safety, your physical safety in your mental health. And those three are at risk. Then this is not a relationship. That is continuing to be good for you. And if it is so true that you find an agree that this relationship

is not good for you, then there are methods and solutions to that. One of which, the options that you have at your disposal is to leave this relationship. And I can tell you what will strike quicker than anything for these type of personalities of whom I have spoken to many is a call, a letter, any communication from somebody with some legal authority, whether it's a judge, whether it's an attorney. I understand that, of course, that's not going to stop their kind

of behavior, but it can keep you out of it. That's not going to change who they are because we've seen and I've seen countless times people who do not change their stripes, even through a huge divorce proceeding. They're still going to be that same person. What you're doing is getting that separation and invoking other people into it that you do have the ability. Should you need to enforce it, you can't enforce it. So what I'm telling you is you have capabilities to

“give yourself agency. That's what I'm saying. I am appalled. I'm appalled by that kind of”

behavior and that you'd have to live with this and deal with this. I can't even imagine what that life is like. And I know you, I know you are not alone. I know there are people listening right now who are just not in their head and saying, I know exactly what this is like. I know exactly what this is like. I don't want you to hear this, listen to me, do not hear this and think, I'm all by myself. Nobody knows what this is like. A lot of people. Wave more than you think,

know exactly what this is like. Everybody is listening to this and you know what this college talking about and you're living this life right now. I'm going to encourage you to just go into the comments. However, you're listening and just let her know she's been, you've been there too. You've been there too. Or maybe you're there right now. Or even a simple year not alone. Because it's going to help a lot more people than you know. Leaving this note with me,

this voice mail for us to give some voice to this kind of thing. That's what that's what we're doing it for. Thank you for that call. This is time and I'm not going to take three minutes. Why do I have to explain to a gentleman that I just want to be friends? They're keeps sticking around I have explained myself once or twice. I'm done. Right? What do I need to do to get it

to their heads? I only want to be friends. Well, it's probably because you're so amazing and awesome.

That's why he didn't want to be friends. Okay. How do we, how do we handle this? How do you

But you just want to be friends. All right. How do we communicate this to this

this bone-headed caveman who won't get a grip, you know. Catch, catch a drift. How do we communicate this? All right. Here's some things that come to mind. And we're going to go from easiest to most serious. You're ready? Number one, I know you think you told them. You just want to be friends? Just because you think you said it doesn't mean that's exactly what's received. So let's, let's do a conversation check. Which means with this individual, the next time he's kind of

hanging around or you'll have a conversation and you just want to be friends. By the way, if you

“want to be friends, so it's this y'all want to hang out and not hang out. You need to make that”

decision. So obviously you don't want anything romantic. You don't want anything to go past that.

So if he's hanging out, why you letting him hang out? I'm question. I'm curious about this. Okay. Well, still, how are we going to communicate that? Conversation check. What does that sound like? Sounds like the next time that y'all are in conversation and you feel like he's pressing it a little too far. I want you to ask the question. I want you to say, when I said that I just wanted to be friends with you, what did you, what did you hear? How did that lay in for you?

Get him to answer that. I want to know, what did you hear when I told you that I just wanted to

be friends? And then you can do that in a very polite, positive, nice, friendly way. But you need

to know what he's hearing. Okay? Because he's not getting the point. He's not getting the point. Number two, we're going to ratchet this up. Okay. This is where you get to be a little bit more assertive of if he's trying to make a move on, you know, I'm talking about, or he's trying to be a little bit too friendly. This is where you get to say, only friends, like you see how you don't even have to, you're not making it a conversation, you're not asking a question. This is you kind of putting

out a very little bit more friendly version of a boundary, where just two words, only friends. Yeah, then that's a comfortable where you, yeah, let's go have coffee as only friends. Yeah, I'm willing to do this as friends. Yeah, so maybe as friends, only friends. Yeah, let's try something like that. I like that as friends. I think I lean on that better as friends. You start adding that to everything that you say. Yeah, I'll go out to coffee with you as friends. Cool, until

it's, we're pressing the point until you realize you don't have to say it anymore. Number three, okay, if this guy's hanging around you, I'm just telling you, you have options,

“okay, you have legal options. They're called a restraining order. You need to keep somebody”

away from you. All right, so I'm going to go serious for like five seconds. You're ready? Hey, if this is somebody that's really not leaving you alone and they're waiting for you outside of your house and following you around and showing up places, that is, if I had a red flag, I would wave it really big in front of my face right now. If you're listening, just imagine me waving a big, big red flag. You need to go to law enforcement and you can apply for and get

a restraining order on this individual, especially if you feel like you are threatened in some way to where it's gotten to way creepier level that you need to do something about it. Cool, okay, now that's the serious. What I feel like from your call, the zone that we're in, the friend zone of this call, is that using the as friends line through everything as a repeat and then asking the question of, when you heard me say, just friends, what did that,

“what did you hear me say? How did that come across to you? How did you receive that?”

And you're going to find out real quickly, if they really got it or if they heard something else, and they were just in law law land looking at your beauty and they didn't hear a single thing, right? So that's, that's my take on somebody who's just not getting the point. Great question. Before we get going, I want to take a moment to tell you about element, which as Mike gets call it, salty water. Element is an easy way to stay hydrated. It comes in packs also in like cilcer cans,

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dad joke. Head to drink element.com slash Jefferson to try it, risk free. That's drink lmnt.com slash Jefferson. Let's keep going. My conversation, questions and problems relate to teenagers. My grandmother of a teenager, and I spend quite a bit of time with him, and I find him sometimes to be like a know it all, slightly disrespectful, just with the tone and the attitude of our conversations.

So I'm wondering if you could offer any advice on having conversations with teenagers,

young teenagers, 13, 14, 15, and that age bracket. I appreciate all the advice I get from your show. So thank you very much if you can address this type of problem. Diane W. Thank you for that question. How do you handle teenagers? I want to call out this disclaimer for this. This is a grandmother, grandson, dynamic, different than mother, son, dynamic, or grandmother to great nephew or something like that. So this is a different

“dynamic. And you should, you already know this with teenagers and anybody who has a teenager, no,”

I don't know if we're talking about 13 or 19. Very different. Very different teen ages. Of course. I mean, that didn't surprise me. Of course, he's going to be a know it all. He's a teenager. Like, of course, he's going to sound a little bit more disrespectful or rude or grumpy angsty. He's a teenager. So I want you to. I don't want to fain the flames of this is his personality forever. It's all going to be terrible. We're going to have to do something

right now. And I'm going to give you some phrases that you can use that's going to change the trajectory of his life. Nope. That's not what this. That's not what I can't do that. I can't do that. What I can tell you, right? Knowing that full well, a teenager's a teenager is how, how if I can help you approach this a little bit differently is coming at it from the standpoint of rather than when he says something like you don't understand. You don't understand. Grandma, maybe your Nana,

I had a meme all. You know, whatever it is. And instead of you going, yeah, I do understand or think of no, you don't understand. You take the position of your right. I don't understand. I don't understand. You're going to know things that I don't know. And this is a world that I didn't grow up in. You're right. I don't understand. So you're kind of taking this more of a position of just choosing to love him for who he is and knowing and I'm sure you pray a lot for him of who he's going to

be. And whether you know it or not, you being the model and a safe place for him to make the mistakes is probably going to do more for him than anything else I could give you. For example, I could say the next time we say something that's, you know, a very know what all he in some sense. You could respond with something as simple as, well, you know, I'd be careful to make judgments of knowing everything. I'd be careful before you do x, y, and z.

there and loving him, that's going to last a whole lot more. Now, if he's saying root things to you,

we already know that's a no go. You don't do that to Nana. All right. So that that has a lot more to do with what your enforcement of that would be how you want to approach that. But what I heard you ask for is not exact phrases, but really more of the, how do you how do you deal with this of a teenager and this current generation of how do you approach that? I find that you're going to want to enforce and cut it off and cut it down and I don't know the situation with him

currently. But what I know in my life, my grandmother did very well was allow me just a safe place,

“even for me to not be my best. I sometimes that's what we need because our parents can just,”

they're kind of in the role they're closer to us and they are the one having to push and press and mold and, and force is grandmother's grandparents. You kind of just become a safe place for that. That doesn't mean we're accepting ugliness towards you. That's something different entirely. But the ability to caution be a guide. Maybe you could try this. Here's a talk.

The next time that he says something, know what all he, all right. I want you to ask the question

of, you know what I've learned? You know what I've learned? And then he's going to say, "Wave you learned." He's not going to say, "No, I don't want to hear it." He's going to say, "Wave you learned." I've learned that XYZ. Now you're showing off of your life experience, rather than directing him, what he should do, what he should not do. So a lot of the times when you say, you're not, you don't know everything. That's one method. Versus, you know what I've learned? The older I get,

the less I really know. And sometimes I thought I used to know a lot. And then when I hit 50 or I hit 60 or whatever it is, I learned you really, there's a lot you think you just, you know, but you really don't. And so you hear how it turns it, without trying to be confrontational. So instead of the you, it says, "Let me share something that I've learned."

“That's why I'd go with that. I know you're good, grandmother, and the fact that you call and care,”

that speaks volumes. So continue to be the good grandmother that you are. Thanks for the call. Hello, my name is Joanne. I live in Atlanta. And I have been following you for some time. I'm interested in the times when you say, "Files works best." If you've been insulted or if you've been interrupted, that taking a breath and being silent and letting their comment just land, I've tried that. Unfortunately, whoever I'm communicating with will just keep talking,

they will run right past my silence, not even noticing my silence. And I want to know, what do I do in those situations? If I have either been insulted or I have been interrupted, how do I handle that when obviously a silent is not an option? And what do you do? Silence is definitely something that helps a lot. And I strongly encourage the use of it, especially when you're getting these negative

rude, disrespectful comments, letting those words land. I hear you saying, "Look, I've tried that." And this person just used that space and kept on talking, not acceptable. We're not going to do that. That means we're dealing with somebody different. Silence is not a one-size-fits-all for every personality. Some of these people are just going to continue to say this kind of ugly stuff. Here are some thoughts that I have and how I would recommend you handle that situation. Number one,

“you need to vocalize your silence. Now, that sounds weird. What do you mean vocalize my”

sense? I'm supposed to be silent. It sounds like this. When they say that ugly thing, you get to say, stop, I need to let, I need to sit with what you just said. If they continue to talk, I need to sit with what you just said. I'm still sitting with it.

then that is the end of the conversation. This is not a, I'm just going to sit there while they continue to railroad and just make me walk on eggshells and I just get

“walked right over. Nope, we're not. That's not what this is. That's not what we do here.”

Okay, so when you vocalize your need for silence, that sounds like, I need to sit with what you just said. No, I need, I need to let that just hang for a moment. I need, give me five seconds. I need five seconds to really sit with what you just said. And then take that time. If they won't give it to you, that's where you get to be a lot more assertive and using their name, okay, saying their name, maybe their name is Jefferson. I don't know. Jefferson, I need five seconds to sit with what you just told me. If I can't take that time,

then I need to exit this conversation. Okay, that sounds harsh, but if they're belittling you disrespecting you,

yeah, that's also equally harsh. And it's not so that we have to play nice with them being ugly. That's not the game.

We're not, we're not, we're not doing that. So vocalize, vocalize your time, say it out loud. Two, anytime you feel like they are pushing against that in some way. Okay, they're not. I'm going to use the word boundary. If they're pushing against this boundary of this need for time, then I need you to vocalize a time out. Okay, that's more than just being in the conversation. That is saying, I need to exit this conversation. I need to pause this conversation until I

can actually regulate my system with what you just said. So do not be afraid to say, I need to take a time out. Now, I need to, I need a moment pause, leave the room in the phone call.

“I'll, I will talk to you later. And I need to sit with what that in, I need a time out. You know what?”

I need, I need to take a step back from this conversation. I will, I will talk to you later. And if they push and push and push, this is where you get to be more sort of, I said, I will talk to you later. This is not where you get to go. Listen, you know what? I'm so tired of you and you just amp up and amp up and this is where you start to over-explain and start to start to justify and go, I'm sorry. You know what? I just can't, nope, none of that. Do you hear me? None of that. Be more crank up the assertiveness

style from about one to four and say, I said, I will talk to you later. You hear how when I slowed my words down, the more serious I sounded. The more I lowered my voice and I slowed it down, the more

“serious it sounded. Instead of that, look, I'll talk to you later. Okay, I'll just talk to you later.”

I said, I'll talk to you later. Take how believable that is from, I said, I will talk to you later, which one sounds more believable, which one sounds like, oh, okay, they really do sound like they did not like what I just said and I have messed up royally.

It's going to be the second option. So slowing down your words, grounding yourself and hey, you aren't

going to dictate what I am going to do and say, you don't get a choice in that three. I love this phrase. I get to decide that. Oh, I love this phrase so much. If they push back on you of, look, I mean, you're just making a big deal out of this or look, I said I was just joking or they're trying to dismiss that you're saying, hey, I need a time out and they're trying to minimize that because they're going to feel bad about it and the way they're going to minimize is try to

amp it up a little bit as if what you're doing is weak as if what you're doing is unnecessary. That's, it's because they are afraid of what they just said and they're trying not to feel worse about it. That's where shame starts to kick in and they're going to start blaming you rather than in that moment able to see what they've done. That's all the more evidence you need that time needs to enter into the premises. This is where you get to say, I get to decide that.

No matter what they said, you're just, you're just, you're blowing this up, you know, you're being crazy. You're, you're turning this into whatever I get to decide that. Click, you're, you're done. All right, you walk. This is your, your mic drop moment, Diane,

You get to choose. If you're going to come into that conversation again and I would be willing to

“bet that you give it a few hours and that person who has made that comment and has been pushing”

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Hi, my name is Valeria. I'm calling from Sydney. Currently going through a mediation process between my ex-husband of 18 years. It's been highly conflicted. He's become extremely controlling and has not had any involvement with our children up until now with financial settlements due to be finalized. My question is, in high conflict mediation meetings, we don't get to speak very often as he is not willing to have a regulated conversation without resorting to aggression.

What is the best way to proceed during mediation? We've got upcoming in two weeks. My question is if it would be, what is the best approach from my side to get the best results and solutions through mediation without it becoming emotionally driven, given the amount of pain and anger that is coming from that side. Valeria from Sydney. I'll surely thank you for that question. The topic really dies into mediation. When I hear you saying you're dealing with a

divorce proceeding, you have mediation. There are kids involved. High, high, high emotion. Every mediation that I've ever been in, there is a mediator. Who's job is to make sure that both sides don't get too heated. Their job is to go between two different rooms, two different parties, two different people, and then have to be physically on the same location. It could be virtually in some sense or even by telephone. In mediation, most likely you're not going to have what they call an

opening statement to wear both sides during the same room and you could just say something and they could just say something. Most likely that's not going to happen because it's just going to be too contentious. Instead, you'll be in a separate place with your attorney and he'll be in a separate place with his attorney. This is the mindset I want you to have because you asked the right question. What's the approach that I should have into this? You know, not getting to making sure

it doesn't explode on the emotions scale for you. Number one is what you're already doing is that you're keeping your kids at the forefront. It's this bigger question of want versus need. There are a lot of things you wish were different that you want and it's at a place where it's not going to happen. And it's there's been a decision that the marriage is not going to continue in the form

And any time in mediation, every mediator will tell you this, their job is not to get you all what

“you want and they're the same extent their job is not to get everything that he wants. They have to”

find a way to compromise. Meaning they have to find a number. They have to find the exact point on the spectrum or the plane that both sides will say yes to. That means both people are going to be disappointed. That's the way mediation goes. If one side is happy, one side is sad,

it's a bad mediation that's most likely rarely if ever going to happen. It's also true that

it's probably not going to be where one side's happening. The other side's really happy. It's

“going to be who can live with whatever is being asked and offered. And you have to aim to the”

question yourself of can I live with what is being presented? So I want you to have that mindset of is this something that I can deal with? Number two, though you can't see it right now. Okay, there's going to be an end to it in six weeks and six months and two years. I want you to have this state of mind that how you will speak, how you present yourself, how you will behave and conduct this mediation and you're part of it. I want you to be proud of who that person is two years

“from now eight years from now because time is going to fly. Before you know it, all your worries about”

this are not going to be in the rear view mirror and you're going to have other things and you're going to have joys so much joys with your kids and the future life that you're going to have. And so keep in mind that there will be an end to this. There will be a light at the end of the tunnel. So do not think that going into the mediation, this is the sum of your life. Listen to me, this is just a paragraph on a page in the full chapter of your story. So don't get in the state of mind that this is

the very end of the book right here. No, it sounds like it might be the end of one big chapter, 18 years worth of a chapter. True, absolutely, but you know what? After this mediation is over, you get to turn the page on a whole new chapter. That's probably going to be 30 more years

of amazing. All right. So keep that in mind. That's the approach I want you to have. Not that this is

something that's supposed to feel good. It's not going to. What I want you to keep in mind is that it's something that is going to be good for you in your life. I'm somebody who truly believes that all things work for good. And I know that the same is true for you and your family. And you may not feel it right now, most likely you won't feel it in the next month. But a few years from now, you're going to look back and I want you to be really, really proud of the person that you're

going to be. Thanks for that call.