How often do you experience a situation from two different perspectives?

I would argue, more often than you may think.

The truth is we often simply unaware of when it occurs.

Today, I experienced being late to a meeting and waiting on someone who was late to a meeting.

Neither of these are postures I desire.

When I was waiting, I realized how easy it was to feel like: this person didn’t place a high value on meeting with me because it appears they forgot, began to doubt their reliability and become frustrated that I had set aside time for an event that was not happening and might not happen at all.

Although I wasn’t upset that this person was late it was interesting to notice how easily you can begin to feel any of those ways. The person who was late did two things to help minimize the way I was feeling, they were quick to apologize and alerted me they were going to be late. If you can alert someone that you’re going to be late before the meetings start, that’s ideal.

On the flip side, when I was late to the meeting I considered how I had felt earlier that day when I was waiting.

This helped me to eliminate providing an excuse of why I was late.

When you consider the perspective from both sides of a situation you come away with a more comprehensive perspective that can lead to action that differs from what you would have originally chosen.