Benefit of doubt

This doubt has helped me while the others have tormented with their mere existence. And it’s such a simple thing to implement too. Think of it, when you are not sure about someone or something, just think positive about it. Be a little generous and pass on that benefit to the other person. More so because it is saving you from living without a  torture. For example, a friend of mine told me that when she was working for a popularly known ‘Sadist’ manager within the company, she reminded herself that the manager might have been bad to others because they never created their opinions were biased as they heard things from people. That kind of an attitude worked in her favour. The Manager did not become friendly to her. The manager was kind of a person who would get the best of projects for the team and always be in light before the senior management. She learnt a lot while being in her team.

I too implement this discipline in my day to day life. Whenever I find a relative too odd to talk to and someone with a totally different bent of mind (I do get annoyed at the beginning), but I give them the benefit of doubt. I tell myself, ‘I’m totally doubtful whether what I have felt is right. He/She perhaps is a different person at the bottom of the heart’ and the relatives have turned out to be manageable in almost all of the cases.

What do you do when you find a bossy husband or a dominating friend or a cranky room-mate? Can you change them? We most of the times can’t and the best we can do is giving them the benefit of doubt. If its a bossy husband, be happy that you do not have to care about many things in life. If it is a dominating friend, think that she would be taking responsibility of all the jobs that you jointly do. In a few years time, they are bound to realize or you will feel adapted. In either of the two cases, the situation is win-win. After all, we are selfish enough to keep ourselves happy, so what’s the harm in having this doubt? Do you think we can do something better?