Earlier today, someone spoke at me (you know the type?) for about 25 minutes. About something (Forex trading software) I know absolutely nothing about. And what do I do? Do I say “oh hey, yeah… I don’t really know what you’re talking about and I can’t say I’m particularly interested”? No. Do I find a way to change the subject? No. Do I stand there and just listen, smile, and nod as he goes on and on about how I should maximize my (non-existent) investments, expand my (non-existent) portfolio, etc etc etc? Yes. Yes, that’s exactly what I do.
Goal: To become more assertive. And to never feel the need to be so polite that I lose a half hour of my life to something that will probably never be that useful to me, just because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.
I’ve gotten better at this now that I live in such a big city. I hate it – it feels so impolite – but I’ve discovered there are worse things and being impolite – like being thought of as an easy mark.