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The Power of Polite

Recently, I made a decision to be more polite.

My biggest fear was that I'd turn into a doormat. I was afraid that if I took a polite approach, I'd wind up getting steamrolled by everybody around me.

It turns out that I grossly underestimated the power of being polite.

Shortly after deciding I was going to stay civilized no matter what situation I found myself in, I found myself in a bit of an argument.

To make matters worse, the person I was arguing with had definitely not decided to stay polite in any given situation.

He decided to take a few personal shots at me when he realized I wasn't going to be coming around to his way of thinking.

The funny thing is, the more determined I was to stay polite, the stronger I felt. With each comment he made, I stuck to my points and even brought out that age-old favorite "Well, I'm sorry you feel that way."

Normally, taking this approach would have made me feel weak, but when the argument was over, I felt that the other person could actually tell that he was in the wrong for the way he handled it, and I slept just fine that night.

It's pretty cool to know that kindness can drive a steamroller just as well as anything else.

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