Someone cancels plans with me at the last minute, one of my biggest pet peeves.
An employee doesn’t clock out for lunch. Again.
A customer places a big order and, for the first time ever, chooses to pay by check. After the order ships, the check bounces.
The salad I had delivered doesn’t have the ranch I requested.
A new employee shows up 2 hours late.
I texted her a question 4 hours ago and she hasn’t responded.
My lady is grumpy and short.
In my less than humble opinion, there are only three big keys to being happy.
I’m going to talk about the easiest of the three today.
At least, it’s the easiest for me.
It makes such a huge difference in life, in business, in relationships, and your enjoyment whilst getting food delivered.
I think it’s one of the two big reasons I live a drama free existence.
It’s this simple: go out of your way to give people the benefit of the doubt; don’t assume bad intentions.
This seemingly small thing will immediately transform the way you interact with other people.
In all of the above examples, I could have chosen to take personal offense, to get mad, to assume I was being taken advantage of, deliberately ignored, sabotaged, or wasn’t important to somebody.
But in all those examples, I gave the benefit of the doubt, and it paid off each time.
The person who canceled had just found out her close family member passed away.
The employee wasn’t trying to steal time. He was in a rush trying to get everything done and just forgot.
The customer wasn’t trying to cheat me. His identity was stolen and he had to empty that account.
The people at Delivery Dudes don’t hate me. Everybody is overwhelmed with everything going on, the restaurant forgot to put it in.
The late employee’s son had to be taken to the ER at 4 AM. He came to work directly from the hospital.
She was sleeping, not deliberately ignoring my message.
And my lady had just gotten in a fight with her mom. She wasn’t mad at me / trying to treat me poorly at all.
If your default mode is to always give the benefit of the doubt, right off the bat, at the micro level, during an interaction with someone, things will go better. Your reactions will be happier, more positive. And that, in turn, will cause the person to whom you are giving the benefit of the doubt to respond in kind. You will improve the outcome of that individual event tenfold, avoiding what could have escalated into an angry confrontation.
But even more importantly, at the macro level, if you can train yourself to become the type of person who automatically gives the benefit of the doubt all the time, that perspective is going to make you a much happier person. Your perspective, the way that you look at the world, will improve dramatically. You will realize that the universe isn’t a malevolent force plotting your demise and that most people aren’t trying to hurt you. In fact, most people aren’t even thinking about you at all.
With everything going on, tensions are high, but we need each other more than ever. Try and give the benefit of the doubt. Not for them (though they will benefit, as well). Be selfish. Do it for you. Live a happier, reduced stress life.
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