Give People the Benefit of the Doubt

Have you ever worked with someone who seemed particularly grumpy and rude? Or watched someone blaze by you on the road in a dangerous way? I’m curious to know how that makes you feel, if stuff like that often angers you, then listen up!

Try to give others the benefit of the doubt. To enumerate, giving people the benefit of the doubt is to assume that other people have the best of intentions or reasons for their behavior.  Although it is probably not true, hear me out.

Defaulting to giving the benefit of the doubt makes your expectations more reasonable for your own life.  In the moments when you get in someone’s way, or act out of character, you have a larger tolerance for your own behavior because you practice it on other people.  It is important not to be too hard on yourself, because a lot of the time it is a destructive behavior.

Not to mention, giving the benefit of the doubt could restore your faith in humanity, which in turn makes you more open to connecting with and supporting others. This is a great trait to have because small interactions have the ability to bring a lot of joy into your life. 

So, the next time someone does something that seems out of place or irritates you, use it as a reminder that you don’t know their whole story, and maybe they are acting within reason for their purposes. And even so, remember that even though some things that happen to you are out of your control, the way you perceive it isn’t.  The same applies here, make it a normal thought pattern.